In only his second year of playing racquetball, Sid Harshavat won the amateur division of the sport’s most prestigious tournament. One year later, the 25-year-old McCormick graduate student has returned to Memphis, Tenn., to recapture the title.
More than 650 athletes from about 23 countries are competing in the U.S. Open Racquetball Championships.
Harshavat said this year’s match is reminding him of moments from the 1999 tournament.
“I remember playing in the floodlights at like 12 at night. … It’s definitely very exciting, especially the night games,” Harshavat said. “I was nervous as hell because it was my very first time playing at the U.S. Open.”
Despite his previous national title, Harshavat said he still is nervous about the upcoming tournament, which began Wednesday and lasts until Sunday.
“I’m 100 percent in anxiety mode,” Harshavat said. “There are so many people who want me to win. I just hope I don’t lose in the first round.”
Despite his anxiety, he remains optimistic.
“I’m one of the fastest on the court, so definitely I’ll do good,” said Harshavat, who won a silver medal at the World Racquetball Championships in Mexico City last year.
Harshavat mov ed to the United States in 1994 from New Delhi, India, where he played some badminton but no racquetball. He began his undergraduate studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology, started working at Motorola shortly after graduating and is now a second-year graduate student in Northwestern’s Masters in Information Technology program.
After taking up racquetball in 1998 simply as “a time-killer,” Harshavat was playing at the YMCA in Palatine when a professional player, now the director of the Illinois State Racquetball Association, suggested that he play in tournaments.
Harshavat is still an amateur player, but he said he definitely would pursue racquetball as a career if he found additional sources of funding. The sports equipment manufacturer and marketeer Head provides his equipment, but all other expenses at tournaments come out of his pocket.
At the U.S. Open, the Indian sports ministry will sponsor him. He will not represent NU because the university does not have an official racquetball team and does not sponsor individual players, said Daniel Bulfin, director of recreational sports for NU.
“We just don’t have the resources,” Bulfin said.
A self-proclaimed proud Wildcat, Harshavat said he is frustrated that he cannot represent NU but hopeful that circumstances will change in the near future.
“If I do well in this year’s tournament, I think I’ll have a pretty good shot at it,” he said. “I’ll persuade them to think again. This is a matter that the athletic department should look into rather than shutting it out.”
Harshavat said he is considering starting an NU team to compete in a large intercollegiate racquetball tournament.
Despite his talent and achievements, Harshavat has been fighting a long battle for sponsorship and recognition. The Indian sports ministry initially refused to sponsor him because racquetball is not well-known in India.
Before the 1999 U.S. Open, Harshavat contacted the Indian embassy in Washington, which dealt with the sports ministry in India and finally obtained an Indian uniform for him. Harshavat said they have been more supportive since then.
“It was one of the first stepping stones,” said Harshavat, who then became the first Indian ever to win the tournament.
“There is always optimism and light at the end of the tunnel.”
