New Delhi: Vaishnavi Adkar’s rise this season has caused a flutter in Indian women’s tennis. The 21-year-old at the W 100 ITF event in Bengaluru in February became the first woman from the country to enter the singles final of a tournament of that level since February 2009.
And the player before her to do that? Sania Mirza.
Like many promising tennis talent before, Vaishnavi finds herself at the tipping point of transition. Her performances will be keenly followed as she plays in the Billie Jean King
Cup (Asia Oceania Group 1) for the first time. The tournament will be played at the DLTA courts here. Her impressive run in the ITF tournaments at home has helped her singles rankings trend in the right direction—entering the top 400 is seen as a starting point.
In July last year, Vaishnavi won bronze at the World University Games in Germany. She then won the Fenesta national women’s title in October. This season she moved base from hometown Pune to the Rohan Bopanna Tennis Academy (RBTA) in Bengaluru. The switch has made a difference. Vaishnavi now has a seasoned coach in M Balachandran and a travelling physio.
“The W100 in Bangalore is something that helped me realise my potential because I have always been someone who has had a lot of doubts and never really believed much in myself. I think shifting my base to Bengaluru has helped because I am getting the guidance from experienced people like Balu sir and Rohan. The change in perspective has been making a huge difference,” Vaishnavi told HT.
“Rohan has experienced those situations as a professional and knows what you’re feeling, what you’re thinking. I have been feeling much better on court, more confident about implementing the things we are working on, especially while playing against higher-ranked opponents. My self-belief and confidence have got much better.”
Balachandran acknowledged the improvement in Vaishnavi’s game. “She has made huge progress. Her shot selection has improved. She has excellent timing and for her size, the kind of power she generates from her groundstrokes is phenomenal. But you can’t play every ball at the same speed, so we worked on that. Then comes the physical, tactical part. There is still a lot to be done,” says Balachandran.
Indeed, the road from here only gets tougher. As she gears up to test herself on the international circuit, Vaishnavi is aware of the challenges that await her.
While tennis talent continues to surface at the junior level, and even in the early senior ranks, a lack of timely financial support or access to elite-level coaching has often led to ambition being crushed prematurely. Sania’s exceptional run at the international level carved a path for future Indian stars to emerge, but her success could not be replicated due to the absence of a robust domestic structure that can identify and nurture talent early. Otherwise, patience runs thin for both parents and players after a punishing grind does not lead to results.
“One of the biggest struggles for Indian players is the finances because tennis is a very expensive sport. Travelling abroad itself is quite draining on the pockets. And then you have so many other things to manage. If you don’t have anyone helping you out with it, it becomes quite exhausting. That is one of the biggest reasons a lot of players burn out and just quit because after a point it doesn’t feel worth it, putting in so much work and still struggling,” Vaishnavi says.
With younger sister Asmi also emerging a promising junior player, their parents have a lot to think about. While her father Nihar Adkar, a businessman, passionately follows the careers of his daughters, mother Gauri travels with them.
“For me, it was difficult because both my daughters are playing. You have to plan the budgeting meticulously. The initial transition is very difficult because there is no prize money at all. At senior level, prize money comes in but considering the spends in travel, air tickets etc., it is still not enough. Then at a certain point you feel the need to do more. You can’t talk about results in front of them, and at the same time they need to understand the effort that’s going in. But the positive thing is there is now more support from sponsors coming forward,” Nihar said.
