Passion is the catalyst to augmenting talent and this has been proven once again by a young tennis player from Udaipur, Darshan Singhvi.

A student of class XII, Darshan stood on the lawn tennis court for a good 15 hrs and 30 minutes and played his heart out. As per head Coach Mohan Salvi, under whom Darshan has been training for 4 years now, Darshan began his tryst with the racquet and ball at 9pm on 28 April and ended his marathon session on the court at 1230pm on 29 April.  His session was continuous, with a short break every 10 minutes.  Darshan will be claiming for this marathon session to be entered into record books.

Mohan Salvi, who has been training kids from Udaipur in the lawn tennis sport for more than a decade now was elated in his interaction with UdaipurTimes, when he announced a day earlier that his prodigy will be attempting this feat.  Darshan took to training under Mohan 4 years ago, when he decided to take up an individual performing sport. Mohan helped Darshan with rigorous training to perform such a feat.

As per Darshan who is a student of Class XII, he was seeing his school mates performing at different levels and at times creating records and making a name for themselves. Darshan thought of doing something unique with his game at which he has been playing at district and state level for the last two years now. This is not the first time that Darshan has played continuously – he has his personal record of 6hrs and 8 hrs of continuous playing under his belt and this time he topped it with a 100% jump to 15hrs and 30 minutes.

Darshan was helped in his marathon session by his companions from Mohan Salvi’s training camp. Those who played alongside Darshan were his coach Mohan Salvi, Akshun Purbiya, Kapil Srimali, Shivam Salvi, Khyati Jain, Deepak Gameti, Sanjay Dangi, Shivansh, Ojas Sharma, Priyanshu Pujari and Hardik Ranawat.

Darshan’s family - father Nirmal Singhvi, mother Amita Singhvi, Uncle Sanjay Singhvi, grandfather Bhanwarlal Singhvi; friends – Avi Krishnawat, Gyanesh Pandey, Khushi Tevani and Akshat Baghol were also present on court all through to cheer him on and keep him motivated.

His parents were at first apprehensive of his interest in sport and such marathon sessions due to Darshan’s health constraints. However, understanding his passion to perform, they shifted gears and provided the needed motivation and support to Darshan, thus helping him perform such a feat.

District Sports Officer Shakeel Hussain was also on court to watch Darshan perform and said that such a performance is a boosted for other children in the city. Witnessing the passion in Darshan, other children will be motivated to take up sport alongside their studies, thereby helping them develop as better individuals.

The longest tennis match in recorded history was played between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut at the 2010 Wimbledon, which lasted for 11 hours and 5 minutes.