13-year-old continues winning streak, clinches U-14 tennis tournament title in Pune

“Serena is a very strong player who I played against in the final match. As for me, I kept changing my game after every point and I kept searching within her game as I wanted her to make more mistakes. The rallies were good between the two of us. I played the match seriously as I want to place myself in the national rankings,” said Deshmukh.

A Class IX student of Sinhgad Springdale Public School who trains at the Maharashtra Mandal under coach Dharnidhar Mishra, Deshmukh said that it was her debut game under All India Tennis Association (AITA). She said that apart from her tennis practice, twice a day, she also learns from following professional tennis players. However, she aspires to be ‘a someone’ instead of being like someone.

“My father was a tennis player before I was born so naturally, I picked up the game from him when I turned five. By the age of 10, I started to take tennis seriously and subsequently began with my participation in competitive matches under PMDTA. I was very excited to play as I had made prior attempts to play the tournaments organised under AITA. I was part of the toughest draw as my first match was with the second-seed, but I nailed my matches as I knew some players since they were local players,” she said.