The next Bhambri rises

“All those guys have really achieved a lot,I think I have a long way to go.” A day earlier,she had battled past fourth-seeded compatriot Rushmi Chakravarthi in the opening round.

For those in the know,Prerna,19,was always expected to do well. She hits powerfully that’s unfamilliar in the women’s categories,and more importantly hits with a lot of accuracy. But after winning the junior national championships in 2009. Prerna sort of fell off the radar. “2010 was a hard year for me. I was in my last year of school,so I had to sit for my exams. I took a complete break from tennis from January to May last year. I was playing perhaps an hour or two of tennis in that period,” she says.

Making a return was made doubly harder because Prerna had just moved out of the junior category and had to play only seniors. “The seniors seemed a completely dramatic shift and especially so because I was out of practice. In the seniors,players hit with a lot more power. They are fitter and shots that you would expect to win you a point in the juniors were now being returned,” she says.

Winning an AITA level tournament soon after her comeback proved to be a false dawn. She played a $10,000 ITF in Thailand and followed that up with another ITF in Turkey. She crashed out in the first round in both tournaments.

“My confidence was at rock bottom. I realised that I simply was not fit enough. There were also other things,like my serve and versatility that I had to work on,” she says.

Prerna began to increase her workload at the Siri Fort Sports Complex where she trains. She attributes this training to allowing her to play two grueling three setters against Chakravarthi and Batra on consecutive days. Prerna also began patching vulnerabilities in her game. A powerful serve laced with plenty of topspin is a new addition,and something that came by way of some family help. “Ankita came through for me. She has been practicing with me over the past month. I first brought it out in the ITF in Lucknow and it has worked for me today as well.”

For the Jesus and Mary college student,the last year has also helped her in learning to deal with failure.

“Right now ,I am not that good a player. My ranking is in the thousand mark. By the end of the year I hope to be in the top 600,” says Bhambri.

That though will mean that she will have to get past another lay off period coming up. “I will be taking another couple of weeks off for my college exams. But this time I have an entire plan charted out so that I don’t suffer,” she says. There is also another target.

Always known as Ankita,Yuki and Sanaa’s cousin,she wants to be known in her own right. “It doesn’t bother me that I dont get as much attention as my cousins. I am very proud of their achievements. We get along really well. They too support me on the court and advise me off it. Of course now it is time for me to make people take notes with my achievements as well,” she says.

Top seed crashes out

In a shock defeat,top seed Fatma al Nabhani of Oman suffered a three set defeat to qualifier,Manisha Foster of Great Britain. After losing the first set 1-6,Foster came back strongly to take the next two 6-4,6-2 in the two hour encounter.