The defining moment seems to have finally arrived for the gifted young tennis talent from the city – Yadlapalli Pranjala.
The 16-year-old made a huge impression by winning the WTA Future Stars under-16 singles title in Singapore on Monday.
Making it memorable for her was receiving the winner’s prize from the two-time Grand Slam winner Li Na of China. This is a significant achievement for Pranjala, sponsored by the GVK Foundation, given the fact that she has moved back to her first coach, Sanjay at the Sun-Jay Tennis Academy (ASCI) after a three-year sting with Ilyas Ghouse at the GVK Tennis Academy in Jubilee Hills. Reason?
“She just wanted to be back at the old courts,” was the crisp and modest reply from the coach Sanjay, who is on cloud nine with his ward’s achievement.
This 12{+t}{+h}standard student of Chinmaya Vidyalaya also happens to be one of the only two Indians (the other being Sumit Nagpal) who was ranked below 30 in the ITF world junior rankings, which also saw the honour of getting a direct entry into the French and the Wimbledon Opens earlier this year.
Growing stature
The Hyderabad girl did make the critics note her growing stature by picking her maiden ITF Grade I title this March when she won in Bangkok. Back at ‘home’ at ASCI, Pranjala focussed, under the tutelage of Sanjay, on hitting those shots on the run, capitalising on loose balls and hitting the overhead smashes with more precision. And now she feels she is a more confident player.
Coach Sanjay says that more power into her serve also means she is a different and difficult player to handle with now in the circuit.
Aware of the huge expectations on being tipped as the next best talent after the five-time Grand Slam winner Sania Mirza, Pranjala is apparently keen on keep winning more titles.
