For someone trying to leave her imprint in the big league of tennis, 14-year-old V. Sanskruti has reason to cheer. She is the only girl from south India to be picked up along with nine others from across the country to be ball-pickers for the prestigious Australian Open.
The Grand Slam tennis tournament is scheduled to take place from January 20 to February 2.
The screening process involved 1,500 applicants from across India and it was further pruned to 250 after which the applicants were called for special tests in Delhi. Of them, 100 were short-listed before the best 10 were selected.
Sanskruti feels it is a “huge opportunity for me to see the world of international tennis and my favourite players from such close quarters”.
The Gitanjali Devshala student, who is a trainee under Dilip at L.B. Stadium and physical trainers Mazhar and Venkat, is slowly making an impact in her age group like picking a team bronze in the School Games Nationals recently.
She owes her trip to Down Under to ITF official J. Shiva Kumar Reddy who took a lot of interest in giving specialised training to select boys and girls from Hyderabad free of cost, to help them get through the screening process. “On my return, I should be a much more confident player and am hoping to make it big as my ultimate dream is to play a Grand Slam,” she says.
