Dev of all things Brilliant

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Unruly hair, unconventional looks, a twinkle in the eye, the exuberance he churns out during a conversation has made him a trend setter in Indian sport. Tennis ace Somdev Devvarman is far from his Grand Slam dreams, yet his commitment gets champions singing his praise.

Like 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer, lauding the Arjuna Awardee once said, “On Tour, we admire his work ethic. It’s remarkable.”
But there is more to the 28-year-old than his tennis skills — music lover, doting brother, budding musician and of course, an inherent leader.
At any time if one asks Somdev what he would have been if not a tennis player, his instant reply is a ‘musician’.
Speaking about his love for music, the self-confessed bathroom singer who plays the acoustic guitar says, “I play the guitar quite regularly and own five of them. When I have the time, I indulge in some jamming sessions with my friends. In fact, music played a key role in my life last year when I was going through a long injury lay-off. When I was not working on my fitness, I spent a lot of time on concerts, where little known bands with huge potential played. After the concerts we even got a chance to interact with them and I thoroughly enjoyed those days.”
Adding more on his musical bend, the Chennai-born Texas-resident says, “I love listening to the Beatles and Bob Dylan and at the same time I am a diehard fan of S.D. Burman and R.D. Burman and love to unwind with old Hindi melodies.”
While music is healing, his family is his biggest source of strength.
A sociology degree holder from the University of Virginia, Somdev, youngest of the three children of Ranjana and Pravanjan, is very close to his siblings Paulami, a photographer and Aratrik, who is a designer.
“We are a close-knit family. Each of us have different careers but we make it a point to be there for each other. When I was younger, my mother used to accompany me for all tournaments. I believe support from the family is the most important thing for any sportsperson,” expresses Somdev.
If one thought the US-educated spunky lad has no superstitions, he lets the cat out of the bag and says, “I wear my bandanna only when I enter the court and remove it just before I leave.”
Somdev, who loves dogs and has six of them, is quite the flavour of the season among women and has quite a female following. Ask him about it and he says, “I would rather have it than not have it. I take all the female attention as a compliment and feel fortunate to get it.”
At his age, distractions are plenty, but Bhuji, as Somdev is fondly called, is quite sorted on his priorities.
“I have had distractions my whole life. But when you play tennis, you don’t think about such stuff. All of us are human beings, so the feelings we have are almost similar — love affair, not doing well, someone in the family injured or sick. Stuff like this happens in everyday life and as you get older and more mature you learn how to deal with it and separate professional life from personal. I’ve become better and more mature as I have grown older and it’s more fun. Believe it or not, I’m having a great time with everything. I’m playing some solid tennis and I think my best tennis is ahead of me,” asserts Somdev with his toothy grin in place.