Winner: Shrivalli beat second seed Valentini 6-3, 6-2 within the first qualifying spherical.
| Picture Credit score: Kamesh Srinivasan
Together with her huge serves and explosive strokes, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty is likely one of the most fun girls’s tennis gamers to observe within the nation.
The 2-time Nationwide champion, who gained her maiden ITF girls’s title in Bengaluru in November, might not be that constant owing to the type of her recreation, as she goes for broke at each alternative.
On Saturday, nonetheless, on the newly laid black courtroom of the Cricket Membership of India (CCI), the 22-year-old Shrivalli confirmed a uncommon maturity to match wits towards the 26-year-old Valentini Grammatikopolou. The small-built Greek, who had reached the second spherical of the US Open, was ranked a career-best 143, profitable 16 singles titles on the Tour with equal felicity on clay and laborious courts.
After a hesitant begin when she trailed 1-3, Shrivalli performed with a powerful mix of precision and energy, stroking with poise and punch on each the flanks, to beat the second seed 6-3, 6-2 within the first qualifying spherical of the L&T $115,000 Mumbai Open WTA tennis event.
“It was nice to have a debut like this within the huge occasion. We had arrived late after enjoying in Indore yesterday. I had little or no apply right here. However, it was an enormous alternative and I instructed myself to be affected person,” mentioned Shrivalli.
Shrivalli had gained three singles matches in a collection of 5 current tournaments in Solapur, Navi Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, and Indore.
“I’m glad that we’ve so many tournaments at dwelling now. We’re in a position to play with out being below stress to capitalise on the few possibilities we had earlier. We’re uncovered to so many top-quality gamers that the standard of everybody’s recreation has gone up now, and anyone can win on a given day,” she added.
Regardless that everybody has been speaking extremely about her recreation, Shrivalli gained confidence by profitable the Fenesta Nationwide championship final 12 months. She is grateful to her long-time coach Anand Kumar and mentor Vishaal Uppal for attempting to assist her thrive on her power. “Each my coaches inform me to give attention to my power and preserve calm.”
Drawn to play Viktoria Morvayova of Slovakia within the second and last qualifying spherical, Shrivalli mentioned that she would proceed to take pleasure in competing towards high-quality gamers and attempt to have enjoyable. “I’ve nothing to lose. My focus is to play my greatest recreation.”
With Zeel Desai outplaying one other Greek, seventh seed Sapfo Sakellaridi, and Vaidehi Chaudhari getting previous fourth seed Dejana Radanovic of Serbia after 5 video games because the latter was sick, it did look that the Indian diamonds had been getting polished effectively to shine vibrant on the skilled circuit.
