Vaidehi Chaudhari makes her mark as India’s tennis scene comes alive

One of Indian tennis’ oft-highlighted issues in recent times has been the lack of tournaments at home, a major stumbling block attributed by the country’s players that compels them to take the tougher route in climbing the rankings ladder.

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In the first quarter of this season, however, a steady string of tournaments across levels were held in the country, the kind that hasn’t been woven together in the recent past. From January to March, India played host to eight International Tennis Federation (ITF) women’s and four men’s events, three ATP Challengers and the ATP 250 in Pune apart from other junior ITF tournaments. And while the volume still has room to swell compared to other Asian and European countries, it is significant enough to have put the ball in the Indian players’ court.

A few have cashed in on that, many others—predominantly the top pros—not quite from the home stretch that began and ended with an Indian singles winner. After Vaidehi Chaudhari kicked things off with her maiden title triumph at the ITF W15 Gwalior in early January, Digvijay Pratap Singh won the ITF M15 Chennai that concluded last weekend. The only other domestic champion in singles was Zeel Desai, who won the W15 Jhajjar in February for her first title after 2017.

The 23-year-old Vaidehi has been the standout of this phase. The reigning national singles champion backed up her first ITF trophy with the W15 Gurugram title in February while also reaching another final in Jhajjar. The $15,000 events may have the fewest points on offer in the ITF tour, but the belief a title triumph can inject is unmatched. After years of near-misses, Vaidehi experienced that twice in the last three months.

“I’m feeling confident after my last few achievements. It has given me a considerable boost,” the Ahmedabad-based player said. “After Covid, India is putting a lot of interest in holding WTA and ITF women’s events, so it’s a good sign for Indian players that we are getting back-to-back tournaments at home.”

From being in the low 500s of the WTA rankings last December, the two titles helped Vaidehi rise steadily to be placed 481 currently as the India No. 4 in singles. It also earned her a debut in India’s Billie Jean King Cup squad for the Asia/Oceania group ties last week. “I played against a top-20 WTA players in doubles, so it was a great experience.”

Digvijay, meanwhile, captured his second career title in Chennai last weekend after winning an M15 event in New Delhi last year. After a few challenging months battling injuries and a drop in form, the title came as a “welcome boost” for the 22-year-old. The only Indian singles winner from the four ITF men’s events and three ATP Challengers in India this year, Digvijay said home advantage does play a role. “It was amazing to have these tournaments at home. We know the conditions here. They can fluctuate depending on the city, altitude, weather etc. And we already know that. So that gives us the edge from the foreign guys,” he said.

Title-winners aside, others gained as well. Like Sandeepti Singh Rao, a 19-year-old who reached back-to-back singles finals in just her second ITF season while defeating top seed and seven-time ITF winner Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia in Jhajjar. Or the doubles pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and N Sriram Balaji whose final run as an alternate pair at the ATP 250 Maharashtra Open in Pune proved a springboard to their Grand Slam leap into the Australian Open. Or Manas Dhamne, the 15-year-old ATP Pune wildcard who showed glimpses of his potential in his backyard.

Sumit Nagal, the last Indian face in the singles draw of a Slam, found his way into his first Challenger semi-final since 2021 at the ATP Chennai Challenger in February. That week alone bumped him up 90 spots in the rankings from languishing in the 500s in the ATP singles charts. Back as India No. 1 in it at 366th, Nagal though could not quite build on that, losing in the second rounds of the Bengaluru and Pune Challengers that followed. The top Indian woman in singles, Ankita Raina entered the final and semi-final of two ITF W40 events in Bengaluru and Pune, respectively, but blew a chance to clinch her first singles title since 2020 by losing to 15-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova in the Bengaluru final.

That’s where the top Indian pros fell short in making use of the home run. Mukund Sasikumar, the ATP singles India No. 1 in December, reached just one semi-final in ITF Lucknow. Ramkumar Ramanathan suffered early exits in all three Challengers in India before dropping down to the ITF circuit; he also lost in the semi-finals of ITF Chennai. Prajnesh Gunneswaran too crashed in the first rounds of the home Challengers and has taken a brief pause from the game. The injury-prone Karman Kaur Thandi has not played since losing to Ankita in the quarter-finals of the W40 Pune in January.

Now back to travelling abroad for tournaments, Indian players will likely have to wait till towards the end of the season to get another similar stack of tournaments at home. “I just hope we can have many more of these events in India throughout the year,” Digvijay said.