Co-captain Saurabh Kohli '08 has taught the men's tennis team the true meaning of the word "toughness." For Kohli, toughness was leaving his native India for the first time in his life to attend Brown. Toughness was contributing to consecutive Ivy League titles in 2005 and 2006. Most of all, toughness meant never saying "no" to a challenge.
This last item, Kohli's refusal to back down from challenges, is what his teammates find the most inspiring. They recalled Kohli's fearlessness during practice one day last season. Dan Hanegby '07, co-captain at the time, tested the team with an exercise he had learned during his time in the Israeli army. The Israeli Army Crawl consists of crawling while keeping one's body entirely flat, and everyone found the drill too difficult - except Kohli.
"None of us could do it, so we all gave up," said Kohli's teammate Basu Ratnam '09. "But Saurabh said, 'You know what, I'm going to finish this.' So he crawled across all four courts (in the Pizzitola Center) and back, and by the end he was bleeding from cuts all over his arms and legs. He told us, 'This is what Brown tennis is about.' "
That mentality is one of the reasons Kohli has found so much success on the tennis court. He began playing tennis at nine years old as a substitute for cricket, India's most popular sport.
"My dad was in the army, so we moved cities a lot and I didn't have a lot of friends," Kohli said. "I liked cricket, but I didn't have enough friends to play."
Kohli quickly picked up tennis, though it wasn't until he was 12 that he had his first coach. Nevertheless, two years later, he was invited as one of five players selected from each Indian state to join a tennis development academy established by the All India Tennis Association. Kohli began competing in national tournaments, and he remained ranked in the top five at the junior level for the duration of the program, which ended when he was 17. The next year, Kohli enjoyed a two-month reign at No. 1 and ended 2003 ranked at No. 3.
Kohli spent the following year competing at the professional level before making the decision to come to America. "I wasn't going to be in the top 100 in the world, so I wanted to balance both tennis and education," he said. "In India, you don't play at college to represent your school. You have to travel a lot and miss classes. But I wanted to get a good education."
Kohli's older brother, Sharad, had graduated from the University in 1999 and encouraged him to consider Brown. Sharad was also a member of the tennis team during his time at Brown.
"My brother spoke very highly of this school," Kohli said, adding that he considers Sharad his role model. "He's the first person from my family to come to America to study. He's an extremely hard worker."
However, Sharad had moved to New York by the time Kohli arrived at Brown, and Kohli found himself with "no cell phone and no family" in his first time outside of India.
Kohli had particular trouble adjusting to the food in America. He remembers his first breakfast on campus, which he ate at Au Bon Pain on Thayer Street. Not knowing what bagels were, Kohli ordered one anyway, but was wary of the cream cheese, passing on the spread. Kohli also asked for cold coffee, a popular Indian beverage, but the cashier assumed he meant iced coffee. To Kohli's disappointment, he did not enjoy the iced coffee and was stuck eating "just bread."
Kohli found American holidays equally unfamiliar at first, spending his first Thanksgiving alone in an empty Perkins Hall. "I didn't even know what Thanksgiving was," he said. "I ordered food and watched a lot of movies."
Since those first few months on campus, breakfasts and holidays have improved for Kohli. He now spends Thanksgivings with Ratnam's family in New York, and according to Ratnam, his parents consider Kohli "like one of their kids." In fact, at Kohli's first Thanksgiving meal with Ratnam's family two years ago, Ratnam's father invited Kohli to make the opening speech. "Everyone loved it," Ratnam said. "Saurabh has been a part of the family ever since."
Kohli said he appreciates how welcoming Ratnam's family has been. His own parents left India for the first time to visit him the summer of his freshman year, and Kohli now sees them once or twice a year.
Kohli also said that Eric Thomas '07, co-captain of the team last season, was particularly supportive in helping him make the transition to American college life. Thomas was the only member of the class of 2007 on the team during Kohli's freshman year, and according to Kohli, Thomas was glad to have younger teammates.
"Eric really took care of me," Kohli said. "I was more lost than the other freshmen, so every time he would go out, he would call me and introduce me to all his friends. He was like an older brother."
Now, three years and two Ivy League championships later, Kohli finds himself serving as the co-captain of a young team. "I love it," he said. "It's a lot of responsibility, but I like having the guys look up to me."
Kohli can certainly command the respect. In his first year with the team, Kohli advanced to the semifinals of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Northeast Regional Championships with Thomas as his doubles partner and, later in the season, he had key wins in both singles and doubles play as the Bears went 7-0 in the conference to clinch the Ivy title.
The next year, Kohli earned Second Team All-Ivy recognition with doubles partner Hanegby after another season of strong play and another Ivy championship. Though Brown did not win the Ivy title last season, Kohli continued to consistently post wins. He was named First Team All-Ivy along with Hanegby in 2007.
As co-captain, Kohli pays careful attention to his teammates' needs, perhaps because of his own experience of feeling lost in a new environment.
"He's a really great captain because he really cares about each of the players, and it shows," Ratnam said.
For example, during practice last week, the Bears were playing a game of football, which Kohli had to sit out due to a knee injury. When Chris Lee '09 was injured during the game, the discouraged team stopped playing as seriously, and the coaches threatened to make the uninjured players run sprints.
"But Saurabh jumped in, with his injury, and got the game back on track so we wouldn't have to run sprints," said co-captain Noah Gardner '09. "He goes out of his way to make things easier for other people, even at his own peril."
Head Coach Jay Harris said Kohli also makes an exemplary captain because his unyielding determination motivates his teammates.
"Saurabh is extremely competitive. He hates to lose more than anybody," Harris said. "He has a sense of toughness that rubs off on the rest of the guys, and the guys are inspired by that. They see how hard he fights, and he lets them know that's what he expects of all the guys."
Ratnam added that Kohli sets an example for the team off the court as well. "Saurabh has really been an inspiration to me," he said. "He has fun - he's always the life of the party - but he also works hard. He's very disciplined."
That discipline should pay off for Kohli after graduation, since he hopes to use his economics concentration to pursue a career in banking or consulting.
However, Kohli said he will miss "waking up late, playing tennis and being with all my friends" when he graduates. "Every day (at Brown) is amazing. These have been the best three years of my life," he said.
And Kohli will certainly be missed as well when he leaves Brown. In particular, the Bears will miss Kohli's presence on the team as a constant model of toughness.
"He's the one person I always want out there on the court," Gardner said.
