#WomenAtAsiad: Rising Tennis Star Karman Kaur Thandi

Indian women in sports are shining brighter than ever. And why not? India’s tennis star Karman Kaur Thandi recently jumped 32 places to reach the 200th spot on World Tennis Rankings. The young player achieved her career-best rank after putting up a stellar display at the Jiangxi Open in Nanchang last month.

With this new achievement, Karman has become the sixth Indian woman to crack the top-200 rankings in singles.

Here are things to know about this rising tennis sensation.

How tennis happened

Karman hails from Delhi and has been playing tennis since she was eight. Her parents discovered her passion for the sport and supported her endeavours. Later, seeing the potential in her tennis ace Aditya Sachdeva started coaching her.

Winning the U-16 WTA Futures Star in Singapore in 2014 put the spotlight on the rising star. She was just 14-year-old then. After the momentum, she reached three $10,000 International Tennis Federation (ITF) finals, while qualifying for another three $25,000 tournaments. Playing for the junior tour, Thandi had achieved a career-high ranking of No 32 in January 2016. She was supported by coach Bastian Suwanprateep when she won an ITF tournament in Germany.

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Career Highlights

• Karman recorded her first win on the WTA Tour in China on July 24 this year, beating China's Jia-Jing Lu.
• The 20-year-old had also won her first singles title at the $25K Hong Kong tournament in June.
• She showed an impressive run at US Open Juniors.
• Karman has won three ITF doubles titles and one ITF Singles Title.
• She has a couple of Fed Cup appearances for India under her belt too.

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Still Going Strong

Karman idolises Maria Sharapova. She was recommended for the WTA chart by 12-time Grand Slam winner Mahesh Bhupathi. He helped her enroll in Patrice Mouratoglou’s academy in France back in 2016. Mouratoglou has been the coach of former World No 1 Serena Williams.

She is currently training under the guidance of Benjamin Ebrahimzadeh, who has also coached World No.1 Angelique Kerber.

Karman spoke to News18 about her training regime, she said, “It is one of the best academies in the world. They make us feel so comfortable, and look after us so well. They motivate us to improve every day. Even if I am away, I can message the coaches and talk to them any time I want.”

From a WTA ranking of 603 in 2016 to 200 in 2018 is a big achievement indeed. Tennis games will be held at the JSC Tennis Court, Palembang, Indonesia from 19 to 25 August. With this talent pool, we think India will make history.

SheThePeople.TV wishes all athletes best of luck at the upcoming Asian Games

More Power to You!

Feature Image Credit: Sportskeeda.com

Read More Stories By Ria Das