Rajeshwaran Revathi and Dhamne lead quest to realise India's dreams
For a country with a rich tennis tradition, India has often struggled to produce multiple players at the highest level of the sport at the same time over the years.
Looking back at Indian tennis in recent decades, it has been synonymous with the Amritraj Brothers, then Ramesh Krishnan, then the Indian Express duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, followed by Sania Mirza and in more recent years, Rohan Bopanna in doubles and Sumit Nagal in singles.
However, there maybe some hope at the end of this decades-long wait for Indians to feature more prominently and frequently at ATP and WTA level as a bunch of youngsters begin their journey on the pro tour. There is an even bigger bunch of doubles players, riding on the Doubles Dream of India programme, that are also making an impact on the ATP Tour.
Leading the nation’s hopes in singles are two young teens - 15-year-old Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi and 17-year-old Manas Dhamne - who have both shifted base to Europe to hone their skills as they prepare a full-time transition to the professional tour.
Rajeshwaran Revathi, already a highly-touted junior, burst into the spotlight at February's WTA $125K Mumbai Open. Entered as a wildcard into the qualifying draw, the Coimbatore-born Rajeshwaran Revathi won two matches in qualifying and then three in the main draw to reach the semi-finals, making her the first 2009-born player to reach the semis at a WTA $125K event.
Thrust into the public consciousness as the saviour of Indian women's tennis, Rajeshwaran Revathi, who received $50,000 of funding in 2024 through the Grand Slam Player Development Programme to assist with her ongoing development, did not let the hype or the eventual defeat affect her. She stayed grounded and focused on each match even as she spoke about her ambitions of winning a Grand Slam and becoming world No. 1.
The game, the hunger and the big match temperament were all evident on the Cricket Club of India courts in Mumbai over that week as was the self-belief, something that her coach Manoj Kumar said stood out about the youngster the first time he saw her.
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“What was really striking about her was her confidence in herself," Kumar told the Indian Tennis Daily amid that Mumbai Run. "I genuinely feel that she carries herself well, and I’ve never noticed any negative attitude.
"She is always willing to do whatever it takes to improve. I’ve never seen her miss a session unless she’s unwell. She grasps things very easily. We made a few changes, and I was surprised at the speed with which she could adapt to different things. I think that’s what really stood out about her."
Perhaps that is what the folks at the Rafa Nadal Academy also noticed when they offered Rajeshwaran Revathi a one-year scholarship to train in Mallorca. With a Top 700 ranking among the pros and a Top 75 ranking among the juniors, the Indian teen has already moved to Spain as she prepares to play a mix of junior and pro events in the coming months.
The same week that Rajeshwaran Revathi was stealing the headlines, another Indian teen was scripting a major milestone for himself far away on foreign soil. Dhamne, who shot to prominence by winning the under-12 Eddie Herr title in 2019, won his first pro title at the ITF M15 in Monastir, Tunisia.
M15s on the ITF World Tennis Tour are the starting rung within professional tennis, but an important step for players as they navigate their way up the tennis circuit.
Dhamne's title run was the culmination of a fabulous run in the first two months of the season, where he won 24 of 28 matches at the ITF level to break into the Top 800 in the world rankings. That makes him one of only five players 17-and-under to be ranked in the top 800 on the men’s side.
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That run earned Dhamne, who also received funding through the Grand Slam Player Development Programme in 2023 and 2024, a wildcard invitation into the final two legs (Pune and Bengaluru) of the four-week ATP Challenger circuit in India earlier this year.
While the 17-year-old did not win a match in either, he put up an impressive effort in both to further substantiate that he maybe the brightest young prospect among the Indians boys.
The good part about this time in Indian tennis is that Rajeshwaran Revathi and Dhamne are not the only hopes on the horizon. On the men's side, 21-year-old Karan Singh, 19-year-old Aryan Shah and 22-year-old Dev Javia have been establishing themselves among the Indian pecking order and are currently the third, fourth and sixth-highest ranked players in India.
On Sunday, Shah picked up the biggest pro singles title of his career by winning the ITF M25 in his hometown of Ahmedabad. There are also 17-year-olds Kriish Tyagi and Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar, a product of the Rohan Bopanna Tennis Academy and winner of the Indian National Championships in October, who are both ranked inside the world’s top 50 juniors.
“It’s a great thing. We have many players coming from India,” Karan Singh told the Indian Tennis Daily recently. “They’ve been doing well at ITF events. I hope they can do much better in the Challenger level too so that they can get used to playing more Challengers and bigger tournaments."
Among the women, 24-year-old Sahaja Yamalapalli and 23-year-old Shrivalli Bhamidipaty, both from Hyderabad, the southern city where India’s biggest female tennis player Sania Mirza hailed from, broke into the Top 300 in the world earlier this year.
Both women have displayed enough game and spark to establish themselves amongst India’s Top 3, alongside Indian veteran Ankita Raina. 18-year-old Shruti Ahlawat, ranked among the Top 50 juniors in the world in 2022 before injuries set her back for two full years, made a return last month to win three matches in qualifying at an ITF W35 event, once again raising hopes about her future potential.
And all of this is just in the singles format. In doubles, where the country has produced multiple Grand Slam champions over the past four decades, India now boasts of seven players ranked inside the Top 100 in the world and 10 in the Top 200.
The success in the doubles format can be pinned down to the Doubles Dream of India programme, a privately funded programme to help India's top doubles talent, mentored by Bopanna himself. The programme provides a common group of coaches, physios and trainers to the players ranked in the Top 200 and its benefits are best explained by Yuki Bhambri, who won his first ATP 500 doubles title at the Dubai Open last month and is now India’s top-ranked doubles player.
“The Doubles Dream of India project has been extremely beneficial. Having a coach, physio or trainer travelling with you makes a big difference. I don’t think all of us would have been here sitting at career-highs if it wasn’t for that project,” he told The Bridge following his Dubai triumph.
Not surprisingly, its success has seen for many calls to create a similar ‘Singles Dream of India’ programme.
Now with a bigger roster of international tennis events lined up on the calendar in India this year and a big list of players aiming to breakthrough to the next level, perhaps the time is ripe for the Tennis Dream of India.