Australian Open: Ankita Raina slamming ITF ace after Melbourne adventure

CHENNAI: When Ankita Raina was growing up, one of her dreams was to play tennis inside Melbourne Park, the venue that hosts the Australian Open. She used to imagine herself on one of the myriad courts there, with a racquet in hand and a crowd watching her at the year’s first Slam.

Ankita realised that dream in the second week of this month, when she featured in the tournament’s qualifiers. It was a moment, she says unsurprisingly, that was “one of the happiest times of my life”. “Playing the qualifiers of the Australian Open made me very happy,” she recollected. “Even if I didn’t achieve what I had set to achieve when I landed there (qualifying for the main draw), I was still happy with the effort.”

Playing in Melbourne — where she reached the second round before losing to Paula Badosa Gibert — is the main reason behind her title run at the ITF $25,000 event in Singapore last week. She says so herself. “It was exciting to begin the year playing in a Slam,” she remarks. “It gave me the confidence and motivation to do well in Singapore.”

Ankita has also been working on the mental aspect of her game — something she has spoken about in the past — and that helped her overcome higher-seeded opponents in each of her last four rounds (eighth seed, second seed, third seed and first seed) in Singapore. “I have been working a lot with my coach (Hemant Bendrey) on the mental aspect of my game. That he was with me in Australia and in Singapore till the first round helped a lot.”

When the 26-year-old is speaking about overcoming her mental battles, she specifically means learning to let go off the last point to focus on the next, and maintaining that same temperament even when she loses matches. “You can’t keep thinking about the previous point. You have to learn to let go off it to focus on the next point.” That may seem way too obvious to many, but the now World No 168, her career-best ranking thanks to the victory in Singapore, is keen to reiterate that point.

The other point Ankita — who is supported by Sports Authority of Gujarat, among others — is keen to stress on the advantages of travelling coaches. That Bendrey travelled with her to Down Under as well as to Singapore helped her a lot in training (most players outside the top 100 don’t have travelling coaches).
“It’s important when you travel with a coach and physio or trainer because at this level, we play 25-30 weeks. So we don’t get time to do training separately.”

In both Australia and the early part of the meet in Singapore, she was able to train with her coach, and that brought about the desired effect. Ankita is staying back in Singapore to take part in another $25,000 meet before flying off to Astana for Fed Cup duties. While that’s short term, her long-term goals for 2019 are clear. “Improve my rankings further and get to the main draws of Grand Slams and WTA events.”