Mumbai: Playing a WTA event in Mumbai wasn’t in the plan of Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi, whose extended stay in India was meant for Europe visa formalities. Unranked and only 15, she received a call for a wildcard entry into the qualifying draw of the WTA L&T Mumbai Open, and turned up to give it a shot. The wildcard qualifier has now turned main draw semi-finalist.
“It means a lot,” said Maaya. “This wasn’t part of my plans, but they gave me an opportunity. And here it is now.”
Here she is, after a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 win over Japan’s 285th-ranked Mei Yamaguchi in the quarter-finals on Friday. Here she is, as the first Indian singles player to reach this far at the WTA 125 event in Mumbai and the first since Sania Mirza in any WTA home tournament in singles.
At 15 and still largely plying on the junior circuit, Maaya will surge from being unranked in the WTA charts to at least sitting in the 600s after this week. These are still early days in her pro journey and there’s a long walk through the development path, but her run does come as a breath of fresh air in these rather grey times in Indian tennis.
The potential is there, as this week has proved. The mindset is sturdy, as her third three-set victory this week reflected. The game is promising, as her clutch play in the deciding set on Friday showed.
Yamaguchi, a fellow qualifier, gifted six double faults in the first set. She stepped up on serve and strokes in the second and soon Maaya was down. Yet still not ready to go into a safety-first shell.
“After the second set, if I dropped my level, she was going to kill me. I had to go all out,” the Indian said.
All out she went and how, breaking her opponent’s serve to love in the third and fifth games. Maaya was serving aces, returning deep and hitting big. Switched on in her body language and with her game, she ended the match with a big serve followed by a forehand winner.
Playing on a weekend at the WTA Mumbai Open wasn’t part of her plans — she takes on fifth seed Jil Teichmann, ranked 117, next. But here she is. At 15.
“I didn’t think I would come this far,” she said. “But there’s one more match to go.”
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