Sahaja’s hard-won progress fills her with immense belief
MUMBAI: Sahaja Yamalapalli was happy when she glanced through the draw of the WTA 125K L&T Mumbai Open. Odd, because she was slotted to face top seed Kayla Day first up. “I wanted to see where I stand, in terms of my game and level,” Sahaja said.
The Indian wild card’s first outing on the WTA Tour ended by beating 92nd-ranked Kayla and going down to 162nd-ranked Polina Kudermetova on Thursday night, when she was one game away from a quarter-final spot leading 5-2 in the third set. The defeat, snatched from the jaws of victory, did hurt a little, but the 23-year-old took home from this tournament the belief of having it in her to compete at this level.
“Sahaja has been thinking and dreaming about getting into the Grand Slam stage (qualifiers) by the end of this year. And this tournament will be a huge confidence booster for her in believing that she has the level to do that,” said Rituplawan Gogoi, head coach of the PBI (Peter Burwash International) Academy in Bengaluru where Sahaja trains.
Sahaja may still be work in progress, but there has been definite progress over the last couple of years that has catapulted her to becoming the India No. 2 among women at 336.
She made her debut on the ITF tour in 2021 after graduating from the Sam Houston State University, where she made her mark playing collegiate tennis. Sahaja’s initial steps on the professional ladder were far from smooth, and began the 2022 season ranked 1335.
That’s when she decided to train at the PBI Academy, a call that added wings to her career. PBI, which opened its centre at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence six years ago, isn’t exclusively for professionals but has a global footprint of teaching “over 3 million stuincluding Olympic and Grand Slam champions”, as its website states.
Its presence in India goes back to the Britannia Amritraj Tennis foundation in the 1980-90s that produced the likes of Leander Paes.
“One of the best things about Sahaja is how dedicated, professional and humble she is towards her work. So once that was in place, our job was to provide her with an ecosystem that would help develop her game further,” Gogoi said.
Part of that development was not only working on her strengths — solid groundstrokes, potent forehand and an attitude of not playing within herself — but also adding variety to her play. The serve has been an area of improvement, and so has her ability to try “different things out of my comfort zone”, as Sahaja said she did in her matches in Mumbai. “In the women’s game, most in the top 150 or 200 have solid groundstrokes. So, to get to the top — and by that, I mean top 50 — there needs to be variety in your game. We have tried doing that with Sahaja, developing her slicing and volleying to go with the baseline play,” said Gogoi, who travelled with Sahaja to Mumbai.
The results began to show. In 2022, Sahaja won a couple of ITF titles in Nagpur and Gurugram, going past the then India No.2 Karman Kaur Thandi in the latdents, ter. The Solapur ITF title last year gave her a first top 200 victory, and the Mumbai WTA event her first top 100 scalp. In a little over 18 months since her Gurugram title in July 2022, she has gone from being ranked in the 900s to 300s, with a new career-high awaiting next week.
Gogoi believes a good tournament or two this season can push her closer to her goal of getting into the Slam qualifiers, and getting a sponsor to fund her travel overseas would help. The “hunger” to get there and beyond, he said, is ingrained.
“I don’t want to put a number on the ranking (in terms of her goal). But of course, I want to build on this (Mumbai show),” Sahaja said.
“There’s still a lot to learn and improve. I want to take the confidence and motivation from this and keep going. At the end of the year, I want to play the Grand Slams, get into the qualies at least. That’s my goal, and I’m going to keep working hard and keep going towards it.”
SAHAJA MAY STILL BE WORK IN PROGRESS, BUT THERE HAS BEEN DEFINITE PROGRESS OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS THAT HAS CATAPULTED HER TO BECOMING THE INDIA NO. 2 AMONG WOMEN AT 336.