A day after her quarterfinal finish at the L&T Mumbai Open, Ankita Raina was holding a tennic clinic for children at the CCI Courts. Every time she stepped out, there would be someone who wanted to take a photo with her or wish her on her performance that week. After all, the wildcard was the only Indian to make it past the first round at the home tournament.
Contrast this with three days before, when she was yet to play her first-round match. She was on the sidelines watching a doubles match and no one seemed to recognize her. In fact, she asked this writer whether people in Mumbai don’t turn up for such events. But for her quarterfinal match, with entry free, there was a sizable crowd cheering for her.
The 24-year-old went down 6-3, 7-6(4) to France’s Amandine Hesse in her third match, but the two matches she played before ensured that people would remember her name – Ankita Raina, the top-ranked Indian women’s singles player.
For more than three years now, Ankita has held the highest rank among all Indian woman players, except for the week of the Mumbai Open, when Karman Kaur Thandi took over.
But, like Indian women’s tennis, Ankita’s rankings have been stuck in the limbo just beyond the 250-mark. She has never cracked the top-200, something that will allow her to start making the draws of bigger tournaments.
However, what the 24-year-old has achieved on the International Tennis Federation circuit in the last decade cannot be discounted, even if the Mumbai Open was the first instance of her making any real inroads in a Women’s Tennis Association event. She has progressively worked her way up the ITF circuit after starting in 2009. She has won five singles titles and done well in China, one of the toughest places to succeed in Asia. She has also played during the grasscourt season in Europe, with Porsche Open being one the highlights.
From Ahmedabad to Pune
Coming from a middle-class Kashmiri family in Ahmedabad, she picked up the tennis racket because her elder brother, Ankur, used to play the sport at a nearby club. Their mother, a huge sports fan and a college-level athlete herself, used to take Ankur to the tennis court they could see from their window since he was four. Ankita used to accompany her two since she was little and picked up the sport when was of the same age.
“I was the height of the racket,” Ankita said with a laugh. But what started as a recreational hobby soon began to take a more important place in the lives of the Rainas, thanks to the youngest member’s phenomenal results.
Ankur played state level tournaments, but was never a top player, runner-up being his best finish. “But with her it was different, Ankita started winning titles from the first tournament she started playing, right from the Under-8 level,” her brother said.
After winning state level tourneys, her first big moment came when she played the Future Kids – a talent hunt conducted by All India Tennis Association – representing Gujarat at MSLTA in Mumbai. “They were not willing to let her participate at first since she was only eight and it was Under-10. But I insisted because there was no minimum age limit and we wanted her to play. Ankita then went on to beat the then Maharashtra No 1 Surabhi Varma, who was 14 years at the time, causing a huge upset,” her mother recounted.
The next five years was about playing in as many and winning age-group tournaments to further her training. “In 2007, we decided that for her to go next level, it is imperative for her to get some kind of training exposure and that’s when we moved her base to Pune,” her brother said.
The two had played at the PYC Gymkhana in Pune during vacations as they had family there and seen several Gujarat players improve under coach Hemnat Bendre. So she moved to Pune and stayed with her mother’s family starting her full-fledged training. Her mother tried to get transferred there as well, but was instead posted in Lonavala and travelled up and down daily for three years, just to ensure that Ankita had some support. Once in Pune, the Raina also decided that she should play the nationals directly and not just age-group events.
The turning-point
The Under-14 Asian Tennis Series in 2007 was a huge turning point in her young career. The continental tournament had a format where a participating player had to play certain tournaments in their own country and then some stipulated international tournaments within Asia. At the end of the year, the top eight players would be invited to play at the Melbourne Park, the venue of the Australian Open. Ankita not only reached the top-eight, she played the final in Australia, losing to a South Korean girl and finishing as Asia No 2. This was, if any was needed, the sign that tennis was Ankita’s future path.
The decision was helped by the fact that Ankita was forced to leave school because the management had a problem with her skipping school for tournaments. Despite that setback, she gave her tenth board exams in private. She also secured 69% in twelfth, even playing in an ITF tournament between her two board papers.
The Asian tournament was in a way also a personal stepping stone for Ankita, it was the time she started travelling to tournaments alone – something she has been doing for about a decade now, without a coach even. There are various challenges of travelling alone – from extra charge for baggage, to laundry to visa issues. This impediment, invariably, has made her more independent person and player.
How did her family decide to let the teen go to other countries alone? “It’s not like we had a choice,” her brother replied, “we just didn’t have the financial resources to go with her.”
On her first trip – Jordan and Syria – her father accompanied her, but the next time, she went to Sri Lanka alone at only 13, “We thought Sri Lanka will be safe option to start. We were initially very worried, her kit back was huge and heavy but she managed it all on her own,” her mother said.
“I still don’t know how I managed it, I look back and think how I could have done it as a 13-year-old,” Ankita added.
But her brother recounts that it was an incident in Pune that convinced them that she could take care of everything. “When she was only 12, due to some problem, she had to carry her own kit through Pune after her training session. She was tired and had to travel in two buses with the heavy kit, but she did it. So we knew that if she has to do something, she is determined enough to do it alone,” Ankur said.
Ankita’s determination is a attribute that stands out in almost all she does, persevering through various setbacks.
The challenges ahead
The Sports Authority of Gujarat, which has sponsored some of her expenses under the Shaktidoot scheme, has been a huge help. And while she has managed so far with whatever she has, the recent snub from the government’s Target Olympic Podium Scheme really affected the 24-year-old.
“I have been India’s top-ranked player for almost four years now, have represented India and won gold medals [at the South Asian Games], what else do I need to do?” she asked. The All India Tennis Association had even asked TOPS to consider her as a medal prospects at next year’s Asian Games, but there is no update on that front.
For now, the Rainas are ensuring that she has all the resources they can muster. Several local places in Ahmedabad have helped her in journey, such as businessman JR Vyas who didn’t even ask for a logo in return, and ONGC gave her a job after she won the tournament sponsored by them in Delhi in 2013.
But for Ankita to make a big leap, she will need some more support. Whether her run at the season-ending Mumbai Open will be enough to get her that, or whether she will be be back on the ITF grind in 2018 remains to be seen. But given the 24-year-old’s perseverance so far, no challenge will be big enough to bog her down.
