What has Maaya Revathi learnt at Nadal’s spain academy? Eat rice, adapt to very slow clay court, and technical corrections from legend

There’s clay, and then there’s ‘the clay’ Maaya is slugging out on the Balearic islands.

Maaya, invited as reserves to be with the Billie Jean King Cup team that made the playoffs after the Asia-Oceania Group games in Pune, would talk about the gravely knowledge about playing on clay she’s internalising at the Spanish base.

“That clay in Europe is physically demanding. Indian clay is one of the fastest clays in the world. But in Europe you have to learn to grind for longer, so what’s done in 1.5 hours here, you have to hit for 2.5 hours. It’s all about playing rallies tactically,” she says.

Maaya has been part of Indian junior teams, but is excited to watch professionalism of her older seniors at the BJK Cup, and though her goals are still winning Junior Grand Slams, there was always the wish to set base in Europe after she decided to go pro in tennis. “Though we were looking for a base in Europe, we didn’t send a request here. In fact we got an invite after being scouted and after 2-3weeks I was happy to train there,” she says.

Maaya liked the well formatted training routines. “I was happy when we were out there on court first day at 6.30 a.m and I just felt ready to start. It’s a massive facility, one of biggest there, and there’s so many different athletes in tennis and paddle. The environment is fantastic,” she described.

Maaya Rajeshwaran and Srivalli in a practice session during Billie Jean King Cup. (MSLTA)

Nadal would come for a day, and interact with the newcomer from India. “He came one morning and watched me play. He gave coaches certain feedback on technical corrections. He also congratulated me on my Mumbai result (she made WTA 125 semis), and asked how school was,” she recalls.

On the whole, it helps to have a professional setup all in one place, and one of her earliest appointments with the nutritionist yielded a surprise. “I had landed there pretty fit so that was good, but the nutrition lady surprised me by advising that I stick to eating rice, because it is better than pasta and will suit me better. She said keep eating what you always have,” Maaya laughs, recalling a conversation that stumped her where she was told benefits of Indian food. Having rented out an apartment with her mother, who cooks (as does she), it’s worked out well.

“They said they would monitor me daily, but I didn’t need to change much,” she says, adding it’s lots of rice and millets in her diet.

Known as someone with a solid, aggressive baseline game, and an unflappable temperament, Maaya does get into phases where she fixates on perfection. “At my previous academy, I needed to get a particular thing in my serve right. I hadn’t played for 2-3 days, but I kept serving for hours because I wanted to finish the session on a good note,” she says.

The demands on physicality on clay however mean such sessions for accuracy and grinding will only increase in intensity. “In juniors and in India, at most you have to labour over 3,4,5,6 shots at most in a rally. There you properly grind and need to be smart about movement,” she says.

Even the sliding and wheeling around court gets demanding daily. Once again, there’s lateral strides, and then lateral striding on clay. “Those are some hard lateral movements we need to train for,” Maaya says, adding it needs proportional strength training.

With her father unable to travel, she often misses him. “I miss my grandmother’s cooking too and Dad too. But I can’t be with both parents.” The Serena Williams fan insists everything feels like an opportunity at the moment, not a sacrifice. About her idol, she adds, “She dominated for 20 years. That’s massive.”

But Maaya is loving the whole tennis drill in Spain, that’s making her independent. “It’s a very lively lifestyle in Spain. There’s no ordering food there. You have to get out of the house for everything. I’m loving that,” she says.