“I really feel previous,” says 15-year-old Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi.
This was after younger children stored approaching her for pictures and autographs after her matches on the Mumbai Open. “I really feel completely satisfied, however previous. The Underneath-12 nationals are beginning, and a few children informed me they’re taking part in that. I gained that event three years in the past!”
This sentiment was presumably Maaya’s solely misstep all via the week. {The teenager} was the breakout star of Mumbai Open WTA 125, an entry-level WTA occasion which is India’s greatest girls’s tennis event. She capitalised on a fortuitous qualifying wildcard to make a surprising run to the semifinal, changing into the primary Indian to succeed in the semifinals of a house WTA occasion since Sania Mirza, and her proactive efficiency confirmed that this was solely just the start.
5 matches in a single week have been game-changing for her and for Indian tennis. From an unranked participant, she’s going to now be within the Prime 700 within the senior circuit after incomes her first WTA rating factors. All this in a event she had no plans of taking part in until the wildcard alternative got here knocking. And like a real champion, she made one of the best of her probabilities and will even maintain her head excessive after the semifinal loss to former world No 21 Jil Teichmann.
Whereas this was a breakthrough run on the senior stage, {the teenager} had been on Indian tennis hopes’ radar for some time. Final 12 months, she was provided a scholarship to coach on the Rafael Nadal Academy in Spain. She’d skilled for a bit, seen Nadal in coaching and can quickly begin there full-time, together with college and a multi-pronged assist crew.
The names related to Maaya’s early tennis profession already are history-making: Sania Mirza and Rafael Nadal. You’ll be able to see why when she performs her sport – a naturally-gifted ball-striker with simple energy, good groundstrokes depth, number of photographs speeds and an innate potential to reset mentally between factors. There’s additionally the candy zing in her racquet swings that set the actually prodigious gamers aside. However maybe probably the most spectacular aspect is how her presents are backed with credible stamina and an admirably composed mindset which makes her appear a lot older than 15. In actual fact, her origin story suggests, her thought processes had been at all times older than her age.
Maaya’s Successful shot !! Into the finals
15 12 months previous created HISTORY at L&T Mumbai Open WTA 125 ������@siyer30 @AITA__Tennis @asian_tennis @larsentoubro #maayarajeshwaranrevathi #maayarevathi #indiantennis pic.twitter.com/YncAp3sfi6– MSLTA (@msltatennis) February 7, 2025
“I began tennis once I was 8, nevertheless it was only a leisure, after-school factor as a result of my dad wished me to play some sport and there have been tennis academies round my home in Coimbatore,” she tells ESPN. “I made a decision to go professional once I was 10, the truth is I used to be the primary one who stated I will do that professionally as a result of I like to compete, I loved competing even below stress.”
This all-out mentality, evident in her sport when she was caught in a number of three-game battles this week, pushed her to go professional early on and win a lot of junior occasions within the subsequent few years. “I began ITFs at 13 and I gained a pair in Chennai and Hyderabad once I was 14; that was the game-changer for me.” Along with her ITF outcomes, she is a Prime 60 junior and has already been to some junior Grand Slam qualifiers – making main attracts straight is certainly one of her objectives this 12 months.
The story goes that her expertise was noticed by the Nadal Academy at such ITF tournaments and he or she acquired the decision up. “We acquired the invitation through e mail and we went there. It simply occurred we had been searching for a base in Europe and we had been so stunned by the invitation and it felt like every thing was in place.” Certainly, the Nadal Academy has been watching and positing about Maaya’s run in Mumbai on their social media pages, signalling a really thrilling time forward when she strikes to Mallorca within the subsequent few weeks along with her mom.
Guess who’s within the quarterfinals of a @WTA event at simply 15 years previous? What an ideal achievement for Maaya Rajeshwaran ����! Better of luck within the subsequent spherical in Mumbai! VAMOS‼️ pic.twitter.com/QLLSSJGu84
– Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar (@rnadalacademy) February 6, 2025
The potential that the scouts on the academy would have seen in Maaya was unmistakable in Mumbai too, the place her constructive strategy and shot-making gained her an enormous fan base and loud crowd assist. Enjoying with that form of noise and expectation helps her as a substitute of including stress, she says. “One factor is that I at all times like to compete, so I’ve by no means stepped again. That’s one factor that I am pleased with myself. Even I believe my dad and mom are pleased with that too.”
It is hanging to see a younger Indian participant with this sort of bodily potential backed by a really sound mindset. Her dad and mom, Rajeshwaran and Revathi, together with first coach Manoj Kumar, flew down from Tamil Nadu after her the qualifiers – and kind a robust crew round her. It is absolutely the belief in her crew that retains her centred. “There have been many individuals asking me what’s the good factor I’ve finished to be right here, I’ve at all times stated that trusting the individuals round me. So I do know that no matter my dad and mom and coaches say, if I simply blindly do it, I will be doing effectively.”
Her mom in flip could be very attuned to her sport. Revathi was sitting within the furthest nook of the court docket throughout matches as a result of she will be able to get very anxious. However on the semifinals, she was within the coaches’ field as a result of she knew Maaya wanted all of the assist that day.
The semifinal loss, although, ought to take nothing away from Maaya’s breakthrough. Her final three matches had been on back-to-back days and that appeared to lastly take its toll towards the big-hitting Swiss left-hander within the semis. In all her younger profession to date, she has hardly needed to play so many matches in per week and her endurance regardless of the three-set wins, is a large plus.
Proper now, she will be able to’t actually practice very onerous with weights within the gymnasium due to her age however has a specialised routine with resistance coaching and vitamin. All of this can quickly be taken care on the Nadal Academy, giving her the form of background that only a few younger Indians gamers have entry to. Fragility of physique has, in any case, been a ache level for a lot of an Indian expertise. Too many have shone shiny early solely to fizzle out as their shoulders and knees get worn out by massive serves and larger forehands.
After such an sudden shiny begin to the season and a a lot faster transition to seniors, Maaya continues to be focussed on her short-term objectives that are nonetheless, cleverly, focussed on the junior stage. “To make high 10 juniors by the top of the 12 months… By the point I end junior, I must be there within the girls’s.” She additionally needs to be in a junior Grand Slam quickly, hopefully the subsequent one on the French Open in Might – each for her love of clay courts and her prolonged coaching on it in Europe.
These are all very encouraging indicators for the longer term, for her and Indian tennis. Sure, there may be work to be finished: on health and that second serve and the power to maintain on the senior stage. However there are additionally many causes to consider that the brand new hope that Maaya offered this week may very well be a long-term success for years to return.