The Ace: Harsh Mankad Fuses Tennis and MBA Skills

Even the abbreviated version of Harsh Mankad’s tennis accomplishments requires a good amount of space. He was India’s No. 1 player in the 2000s, and not only achieved his goal of playing Division I (DI) tennis in the U.S., but took home the National Indoor Singles Title for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers in 2001, which boosted his ranking to No. 1 in the country. He reached a career-high No. 102 Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) doubles ranking, faced world No. 1-ranked players including Andy Roddick, and played on Wimbledon’s hallowed courts.

For all that success, what has stuck with Mankad, ’15 MBA, in his post-pro days has nothing to do with podium moments. As a coach, he often shares a story with his players that isn’t about winning. Playing doubles with Brian Battistone on the ATP Tour, during a close match in France, Mankad hit a shot that tipped the match in their favor. Upon follow-through, his racket grazed the net—a move the umpire missed. Without hesitation, Mankad called out his own mistake, which flipped the point to their opponents. Mankad and Battistone ended up losing the match.

“I think this message of ‘winning is everything’ misses the point. It’s not everything. In fact, it’s a very narrow view to look at sports from,” Mankad says. “We need a healthier, different perspective toward what sports are for us in our lives.”

That message sits, alongside deep personal experience, at the heart of Tenicity, the Twin Cities-based tennis program Mankad founded in 2016. The aim is to break down elitist associations with the sport and spark a lifelong love of it in all the players who show up to Tenicity, whether they’re dedicated hobbyists, committed to making varsity, or aiming to go pro. 
 

Born to play

Mankad was born into professional sports in Mumbai, India. His grandfather is cricket legend Vinoo Mankad, and his father, Ashok, also played professionally. His mother, Nirupama Mankad (née Vasant), grew up with a pro tennis player and coach as a father. She ranked as India’s top women’s player and competed internationally, including at Wimbledon. Readily embracing the multigenerational drive to compete, by the age of eight Mankad locked into his dream of becoming the top tennis player in India.

That meant training for three hours daily, after school and before starting homework, commuting an hour-and-a-half each way to the court, and traveling around the country for matches. At 13, he played for the Indian team in Hong Kong and Japan. By 16, he was competing around Southeast Asia, Europe, and the U.S. “[Tennis] gave me direction and focus from a very young age, and I’m very grateful for that,” Mankad says. “It opened up my mind to the world.” He won national titles at each age group he graduated into, establishing himself as one of the country’s top junior players.

In 1999, Mankad accepted a tennis scholarship at the University of Minnesota, ranked among the top 30 for the sport. Three years in, after winning the national title, he left to go pro, kicking off an eight-year career during which he played in all four Grand Slam events as an ATP player and ranked No. 1 on India’s Davis Cup team—the realization of his childhood goal. An injury cut his singles career short. He played doubles until his pro career came to its natural conclusion, and with it, a solid 23 years of singular focus.

“I needed to figure out what was next,” he says. “When you’ve given so much of your life, and it’s been the No. 1 focus, it’s like, ‘Where is my passion now? What do I want to do with the rest of my life?’”
 

In search of a new dream

The logical next steps waited back in Minnesota, where Mankad finished his undergrad, married his longtime girlfriend, took a job as the director of tennis at Golden Valley Country Club, and started the MBA program at the Carlson School. His studies allowed him to retroactively view his tennis career as the entrepreneurial business it was, and to consider how he might build on those accumulated skills to create something related, but new.

After so many years playing an individual sport, Mankad found value in the dozens of team projects required at the Carlson School, one of which connected him with classmate and fellow former DI tennis player Luke Wilcox, ’15 MBA. Together, they dreamed up the initial Tenicity concept, an app that tennis programs around the world might rely on as a player development HQ of sorts, corralling videos, lesson planning, parent communication, and more. Wilcox’s tech development specialty merged nicely with Mankad’s market knowledge, and the two poured time and attention into the concept post-graduation, in addition to working full-time roles afforded by their newly minted MBAs. 

Mankad values his brief stint in the business world for the way it further illuminated his path. “In that environment, it became clear to me that my future lies in tennis, in something entrepreneurial,” he says. He was at his job less than a year, and left in 2016 to focus on Tenicity solo. 

As part of the process of determining what that should look like, Mankad entered the Minnesota Cup, the Carlson School’s annual startup competition supporting entrepreneurs. There, he connected with business leader and startup consultant Matt Geiser. “Harsh was really more interested in player development—that presence with the players on the court and building program—and having software doesn’t necessarily do that for you. In fact, it can be a distraction,” Geiser points out. His insight helped free Mankad to revise his approach to Tenicity.

“I felt like a smoother path would be to focus on the coaching piece, which was more core to my expertise. It’s still tennis player development, just not a technology focus,” he says. “It brings together my passion for the game, my experience with the game, and my business education. It’s a nice combination of the things that I enjoy.”
 

On track with Tenicity

Following his heart led him back to the court, and students began meeting him there. First among them was Lucky Kancherla, an Edina High School player with DI dreams who wasn’t getting varsity playing time. “I was steered away from [my goal] by other coaches who didn’t believe that I was capable of achieving it,” Kancherla says. Not Mankad. He met with Kancherla and her parents to explore her goal and develop a personalized attainment plan.

Training was intense, sometimes up to three hours a day in the heat of summer, but it was exactly what Kancherla wanted—though not what she’d expected. “I’d been used to hearing about results and focusing on numbers and things like that, but he just kind of set that aside and was super focused on the process,” she says.

More individual students joined Tenicity. Groups came next. Then came schools and communities looking for someone to lead their tennis programs. All got covered by the Tenicity umbrella.

Mankad found he especially appreciated fostering a pressure-free connection to the sport in beginners, such as the five-year-olds in parks-and-rec classes handling a racket for the first time. He’s committed to providing them with a non-competitive path rooted in enjoyment. “Tennis is for everybody,” he says. “Everyone can enjoy it. Everyone can gain from it. And our job is to facilitate that.”

Of course, sometimes, organically, that enjoyment blossoms into deep-seated commitment. Tenicity supports that, too. Case in point: Kancherla, who earned Most Improved Player on her team during that first year of training. She went on to play DI on scholarship with Western Illinois University. Now, she’s preparing for law school and coaching for Tenicity.

“The culture at Tenicity sets it apart from the other programs,” Kancherla says. “It’s almost like this bubble, or safe space, where players are shielded from outside noise or clutter and can focus on their tennis and developing their character skills as well.” She’s helping students grow as she did, as players and as people, working through frustrations, encouraging each other, and acting with positivity on and off the court.

The approach has paid off. Tenicity tennis programs within six Twin Cities metro-area communities and at the U of M’s Baseline Tennis Center currently reach more than 500 kids, with enrollment and partnerships increasing annually. Still, Mankad’s in building mode: Building year-round options, building intermediate and advanced offerings for continuing players, and building awareness of the sport that’s defined his life.

Accessibility, he says, is key. “You don’t need a country club membership. You can join a Tenicity program through your city or your school, and it’s in your neighborhood. You can walk or bike to it. And there’s a trained coach providing a level of quality on par with any program,” he says. “It’s not just about developing the best tennis player, even though that is a key focus. It’s about how we coach and the environment that we create, that positively develops the youth through sport.”

Photography by Dan Gunderson