The 18th edition of Asian Games is set to begin in Jakarta and Palembang on August 18, with 572 Indian sportspersons in contention for medals. After a successful Commonwealth Games, in which India finished third on the table with 66 medals – 26 gold, 20 silver and 20 bronze – the expectations from the Indian contingent are high.
Out of the 572 Indian sportspersons in Indonesia, 12 are tennis players. Here are their profiles:
Ankita Raina
Date of Birth: January 11, 1993
Event at Asian Games: Women’s singles and mixed doubles
Past performance (if any): Reached the third round in women’s singles and second round in mixed doubles with Divij Sharan in 2014. She was also part of the team that reached quarter-finals in the team event.
Best performance so far: Two $25K ITF titles
Brief Description: Ankita Raina is the highest ranked Indian woman singles player since Sania Mirza, with a career-high ranking of 181 achieved this year. She has had a good run in 2018 with two singles titles at ITF events and breaking into the Top 200 in WTA rankings. In singles, she won the women’s singles $25,000 ITF tournament and followed it with a semi-final in Kofu, Japan. In doubles, she won a title in Luan, China in May and lifted another ITF $25K tournament at Nonthaburi, Thailand.
She was also the only unbeaten player at the Fed Cup, where her gritty wins over top 100 players like Lin Zhu of China and Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan made sure India retained their place in Asia/Oceania Group I. She made her Grand Slam debut this year at qualifying, reached the second round at Wimbledon but lost in the first round of French Open qualifying. She has previously won a women’s doubles silver with Prarthana Thombare at 2017 Asian Indoor Games.
Karman Kaur Thandi
Date of Birth: June 16, 1998
Event at Asian Games: Women’s singles
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: $25,000 Hong Kong ITF
Brief Description: A fast-rising tennis player, the 20-year-old has a career-best ranking of *197 (her current ranking) and is considered one of India’s future hopes in women’s singles. In 2014, she was the champion at the first Under-16 WTA Future Stars tournament in Singapore. She has since then had training stints at the prestigious Mouratoglou Academy, founded by Patrick Mouratoglou, who is Serena Williams’s coach. She was also among the earliest Indian tennis players to be included in the government’s Target Olympic Podium Scheme for financial assistance, with the Asian Games in mind. She has had a good run in 2018, winning her first singles title on the ITF Pro circuit without dropping a set at the $25,000 tournament in Hong Kong in June.
Rutuja Bhosale
Date of Birth: March 27, 1996
Event at Asian Games: Women’s doubles
Past performance (if any):
Best performance so far: ITF singles title $15,000 Aurangabad, $15,000 HuaHin, doubles $25,000 Nonthaburi title with Pranjala Yadlapalli
Brief Description: Former Asian junior champion Rutuja Bhosale was a strong player on the junior circuit with a highest junior rank of world number 55. But her ranking dropped after she chose to go play college tennis in the USA to hone her skills. She returned to the circuit in 2017 after getting her business studies degree and training at the A&M Texas University. Since then, she has been steadily climbing up the ranks with two $15K titles on the International Tennis Federation circuit, in Aurangabad and HuaHin in June and September 2017. She recently won a doubles title with Pranjala Yadlapalli and has defeated India No 1 Ankita Raina a week after her title run in Thailand.
Pranjala Yadlapalli
Date of Birth: March 30, 1999
Event at Asian Games: Women’s doubles
Past performance (if any):
Best performance so far: $15,000 ITF title in Sharm El Sheikh,doubles $25,000 Nonthaburi title with Rutuja Bhosale
Brief Description: Pranjala Yadlapalli has proved her tennis credentials on the junior stage with a career-high combined of 15, even as the 19-year-old is working on the transition to the seniors. In 2015, she had won the WTA Future Stars U-16 Gold Tournament in Singapore as well as the Asian Junior Tennis championship. Since then, the Andhra Pradesh-based player has been touted as the next big thing in Indian tennis. She is currently making her way through the ITF grind and won her first pro-title in 2017 when she lifted the 15,000 ITF title in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
Riya Bhatia
Date of Birth: September 24, 1997
Event at Asian Games: Tennis
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: $15,000 ITF title at Colombo
Brief Description: Two-time national champion having won both the national hard-court and grass-court women’s titles in 2016. She reached the quarter-finals of the Asian Indoor Games in 2017 in women’s singles. She won her first ITF title in 2016 when she lifted the $10,000 title in Sharm El Sheikh. In 2017, she won the $15,000 ITF title at Colombo as the top seed.
Prarthna Thombare
Date of Birth: 18 June 1994
Event at Asian Games: Women’s doubles and mixed doubles
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: N/A
Brief Description: 24-year-old Thombare is the most experienced woman in India’s tennis contingent for the Asian Games in the absence of Sania Mirza. She had won the bronze medal in women’s doubles along with Mirza at the 2014 Asiad in Incheon.
A native of Barshi, a village in Maharashtra, she has three singles and 21 doubles titles on the ITF tour in her career, and has been more of a doubles specialist for India given her success. She has represented India at the Olympics, after being picked by Mirza as her partner in 2016. However, the duo went down in the first round at Rio. She has been coached by Sania’s father, Imran Mirza, at the SaniMirza Tennis Academy since 2014. Thombrealso has a women’s double gold at South Asian Games in 2016.
She didn’t have a great season this year but broke the title drought in June when she lifted her first in almost a year at the ITF USD 100K Manchester Challenger partnering Luksika Kumkhum, beating top seeds Naomi Broady and Asia Muhammad in the final.
Divij Sharan
Date of Birth: March 2, 1986
Event at Asian Games: Men’s doubles
Past performance (if any): Won a bronze medal in men’s doubles with Yuki Bhambri at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon. Reached the second round in mixed doubles with Ankita Raina.
Best performance so far: Won bronze medal in men’s doubles with Yuki Bhambri at 2014 Asian Games in Incheon. Three ATP 250 trophies.
Brief Description: The 32-year-old is a late bloomer on the ATP circuit, but has steadily climbed up the ranks since his breakthrough year in 2012. He is the second-highest ranked Indian player in doubles with a career-best ranking of 36. Since breaking into the top-50 in November 2017, he has consistently maintained his place in the bracket.
He enjoyed a successful partnership with fellow Indian Purav Raja, lifting two ATP 250 doubles title, but the pair split in the lead-up to the US Open. Since then, he has not had a consistent partner but has managed steady results on the ATP circuit. He was part of the Indian team at the 2014 Incheon Asiad as well, playing in both men’s and mixed doubles. He won the bronze with Yuki Bhambri then.
Prajnesh Gunneswaran
Date of Birth: 12 November 1989
Event at Asian Games: Men’s singles
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: ATP Challenger title in China in 2018
Brief Description: The 28-year-old has won Under-16 and Under-18 national singles titles but was unable to translate that success to the senior level after losing almost five years of his early career to injury.
But since 2016, he has been on the climb upwards with strong results on the tour and successive call-ups to the Indian Davis Cup squad. He made his Davis Cup debut against Uzbekistan in 2017 when he replaced the injured Yuki Bhambri.
In 2018, the 28-year-old from Chennai has steadily worked his way up the ranks through this year, from a Davis Cup thriller to his first Challenger title.
In April, he was instrumental in India pulling off a sensational 3-2 win over China in the Davis Cup World Group Play-offs tie. After coming in to the squad as a replacement for Yuki Bhambri, he was tested in the deep end when he was picked for the tie-deciding fifth rubber against teen sensation Yibing Wu. And playing only his second Davis Cup tie, he delivered a superb 6-4, 6-2 win.
At the end of the month, he lifted his first ATP Challenger title at the Kunming Open in Anning, China. In May, he narrowly missed a backdoor entry into the main draw of the French Open after he failed to sign in as the lucky loser. In June qualified for his ATP World Tour match, and on his very first tournament on grass, stunned world No 23 Denis Shapovalov. But an injury derailed his grass court season.
Ramkumar Ramanathan
Date of Birth: November 8, 1994
Event at Asian Games: Men’s singles
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: ATP 250 final in Newport
Brief Description: With Yuki Bhambri given an exemption to play in the US Open, Ramkumar Ramanathan will spearhead India’s men’s singles charge at the Asiad. And given his performances in the month leading up the Games, there is a lot riding on the 23-year-old from Chennai.
In July he became the first Indian to reach the final of an ATP World Tour event in seven years when he played the final of the Hall of Fame Tennis Open in Newport. While he couldn’t win the trophy, he climbed to a career-best 111 ranking.
The youngster, who trains at the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona, has had an up-and-down run on the circuit, but is considered to be India’s future on the ATP tour. He is yet to play in the main draw of a Grand Slam despite 12 attempts at qualifying. He is yet to win a Challenger trophy either, having lost in the four finals he has played.
Yet, with his big serve and forehand, he has made inroads on the tour. In his first ATP World Tour match, he stunned the then India No 1 Somdev Devvarman at the Chennai Open. At the same tournament, he reached his first quarter-finals in 2016.
His biggest win so far has come at the 2017 Antalya Open where he upset the then world No 8 and top seed Dominic Thiem in the second round. Ranked 222 in the world, it was his first win against a top-10 player. Later that year he reached the main draw of a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time at Cincinnati, losing to Jared Donaldson in second round.
Rohan Bopanna
Date of Birth: March 4, 1980
Event at Asian Games: Men’s doubles and mixed doubles
Past performance (if any): Round of 32 in men’s singles, quarter-finals in doubles in 2006, third round in men’s singles in 2002
Best performance so far: French Open mixed doubles title
Brief Description: A veteran on the ATP doubles circuit, 37-year-old Rohan Bopanna is the highest-ranked Indian in men’s doubles with a career-high ranking of world No 3 achieved in 2013.
The Bangalore-based player has been a member of the Indian Davis Cup team since 2002 and has represented India at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. He was part of India’s tennis squad at the 2002 and 2006 Asian Games as well, but then chose to focus more on the tour. However, in 2018, he decided to skip the US Open to play for India at the Asiad.
On the ATP tour, he has had success as a doubles player with his best run coming in 2010 with partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. The pair, nicknamed the “Indo-Pak Express”, finished as a runner-up in doubles at the US Open. Since then, he has made the finals of only two more Grand Slams, both in mixed doubles.
In 2017, he won his first Grand Slam trophy – the mixed doubles title at French Open – making it to an exclusive club of tennis players in India, 14 years after turning pro and seven years after reaching his first Slam final. In 2018, he finished as runners-up in Australian Open mixed doubles.
Sumit Nagal
Date of Birth: 16 August 1997
Event at Asian Games: Men’s doubles
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: ATP Challenger title in Bengaluru, Wimbledon junior doubles title
Brief Description: Sumit Nagal first came into the limelight when he won the Wimbledon junior doubles title with partner Lý Hoàng Nam in 2015. The next year, he made his debut for India in the Davis Cup.
In 2017, he had a mixed year after a six-month-long injury layoff. But he built a good momentum after his return, winning the men’s singles gold medal at the Asian Indoor Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, beating compatriot Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-1, 6-1 in the all-Indian final. In 2018 so far, he played in his first ATP World Tour event when he qualified for the Tata Open Maharashtra in January.
The Haryana-born player was spotted early as part of erstwhile Mahesh Bhupathi’s Apollo Tyres Mission 2018 Programme and has had the backing of India’s Davis Cup captain from a young age. He has trained at the Schuettler Waske Tennis-University in Germany. This year, he started training with Spanish coach Javier Ferrer, brother and coach of former world No 3 David Ferrer.
Correction: Karman Kaur Thandi’s career-best singles ranking is 197 and not 216 as it was previously mentioned. This has now been fixed.
Clarification: Leander Paes was originally part of the contingent but pulled out on August 16. His profile has been deleted from this piece.
