“I really feel outdated,” says 15-year-old Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi.
This was after younger youngsters stored approaching her for pictures and autographs after her matches on the Mumbai Open. “I really feel completely satisfied, however outdated. The Underneath-12 nationals are beginning, and a few youngsters instructed me they’re enjoying that. I received that event three years in the past!”
This sentiment was presumably Maaya’s solely misstep all by way of 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 achieve the semifinals of a house WTA occasion since Sania Mirza, and her proactive efficiency confirmed that this was solely only the start.
5 matches in a single week have been game-changing for her and for Indian tennis. From an unranked participant, she is 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 enjoying until the wildcard alternative got here knocking. And like a real champion, she made the perfect of her possibilities 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 supplied a scholarship to coach on the Rafael Nadal Academy in Spain. She’d educated for a bit, seen Nadal in coaching and can quickly begin there full-time, together with faculty 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 may see why when she performs her recreation – a naturally-gifted ball-striker with straightforward energy, good groundstrokes depth, number of photographs speeds and an innate capability to reset mentally between factors. There’s additionally the candy zing in her racquet swings that set the actually prodigious gamers aside. However maybe essentially the most spectacular factor is how her items are backed with credible stamina and an admirably composed mindset which makes her appear a lot older than 15. In truth, her origin story suggests, her thought processes have been at all times older than her age.
Maaya’s Successful shot !! Into the finals
15 12 months outdated 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, in reality I used to be the primary one who stated I am going to do that professionally as a result of I like to compete, I loved competing even beneath strain.”
This all-out mentality, evident in her recreation when she was caught in a number of three-game battles this week, pushed her to go professional early on and win a variety of junior occasions within the subsequent few years. “I began ITFs at 13 and I received 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 a couple junior Grand Slam qualifiers – making main attracts straight is considered one of her objectives this 12 months.
The story goes that her expertise was noticed by the Nadal Academy at such ITF tournaments and she or he acquired the decision up. “We acquired the invitation through electronic mail and we went there. It simply occurred we have been in search of a base in Europe and we have been so shocked by the invitation and it felt like the whole lot 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 outdated? What an amazing 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 optimistic strategy and shot-making received her an enormous fan base and loud crowd assist. Enjoying with that sort of noise and expectation helps her as a substitute of including strain, 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 happy with myself. Even I feel my dad and mom are happy with that too.”
It is hanging to see a younger Indian participant with this type of bodily capability 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 powerful 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 properly.”
Her mom in flip could be very attuned to her recreation. Revathi was sitting within the furthest nook of the court docket throughout matches as a result of she will 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 have 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 up to now, she has hardly needed to play so many matches in every week and her endurance regardless of the three-set wins, is a large plus.
Proper now, she will’t actually prepare very onerous with weights within the gymnasium due to her age however has a specialised routine with resistance coaching and diet. All of this may quickly be taken care on the Nadal Academy, giving her the sort 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 vibrant early solely to fizzle out as their shoulders and knees get worn out by large serves and greater forehands.
After such an surprising vibrant 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 prime 10 juniors by the top of the 12 months… By the point I end junior, I needs to be there within the girls’s.” She additionally desires to be in a junior Grand Slam quickly, hopefully the following one on the French Open in Could – 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 flexibility to maintain on the senior stage. However there are additionally many causes to consider that the brand new hope that Maaya supplied this week could possibly be a long-term success for years to come back.
