Mumbai: Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi just smiles and nods as her Indian seniors on the tennis circuit applaud for her picking up the first-ever WTA Tour points. She knew she would be getting a world rank for the first time, courtesy a wild card into qualification for the L&T Mumbai Open, a WTA 125 event.
The 15-year-old from Coimbatore, competing at a tournament of this level for the first time, came up with an impressive 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 win over world No.265 Nicole Fossa Huergo of Italy. She’s now a step away from achieving her immediate target.
“I had to win today,” she tells HT. “Before getting into the tournament, when I got to know I got the wild card, I wanted to qualify for the main draw. That’s the goal this week.”
Maaya’s time on the junior circuit has been sprinkled with a few forays into the senior tour. She explains that between the top juniors and the seniors, there is not much difference in terms of style and speed.
“But the seniors have the experience,” she says. “Even though they might not be playing at their best, they find a way to win the match.”
On Saturday, at the Cricket Club of India courts, the teenager showed the maturity to pick up what so far has been the biggest win of her career.
She’s a good mover across the baseline and has sound groundstrokes off both wings. What has been impressive though is her court craft. Often, against Nicole, Maaya would open up the court with a few heavy and angled strokes before closing out the point with a winner.
Her lessons for building a point started from her time on the junior international circuit, where she is currently the world No.58. But it’s an art she has started to improve upon as a trainee of the Rafael Nadal Academy.
Maaya has been training at the 22-time Grand Slam champion’s academy in Mallorca on scholarship for the past few months.
“In the past two years, my height has increased and I have become more physically dominant on court,” she explains. “But my time (at the academy) has started to help me make better decisions on court.”
Her entry into the academy came at a crucial time for her. In October, Maaya and her mother had taken a 50-day tour of Europe, travelling from place to place hoping to earn a spot at an academy. It was there that they got an invitation for a trial at Nadal’s centre, and a few weeks later she was given the scholarship.
Almost immediately, she felt its effect.
“I had twisted my ankle just a few days before I first went there (after my selection),” she says. “Immediately, the physio and fitness trainers put in an amazing amount of work. I recovered sooner than I expected.”
Coincidentally, it was an injury that first got her involved in tennis.
Maaya, as a six-year-old, had started skating. Two years later however, in an attempt to make a sharp turn at speed, she slipped, rolled a few times before crashing into the wall.
“Both my knees were badly bruised and were bleeding. Even my helmet came off. All this happened in front of my father and he immediately took me out of skating and put me into tennis.”
In two years, she decided that she wanted to pursue a career in tennis.
“I was 10, and my time on court had started to increase and I was really happy to be on court,” she adds.
After her win on Saturday, she will get more time to spend on the recently relayed purple hard courts in Mumbai.
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