An up-and-coming potential star for the way forward for Indian tennis obtained a lift this week, as 15-year-old Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi obtained the chance to journey to Europe to proceed her teaching, on the prestigious Rafael Nadal Academy in Mallorca, Spain.
Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi alongside Rafael Nadal’s uncle and long-time coach, Toni Nadal.(Instagram)
Maaya has been competing on the ITF’s junior tour within the final 12 months, however will now have the chance to obtain some elite teaching at one of many most interesting tennis amenities on the earth. Rafael Nadal’s academy chooses a choose group of gamers to journey to the recently-retired tennis legend’s dwelling on the island of Mallorca, the place they achieve entry to among the finest coaches within the enterprise.
Maaya, who hails from Tamil Nadu, will journey in January to start her year-long stint on the Academy. Her coach of the final 5 years, Manoj Kumar, spoke to Instances of India concerning the chance this presents to her.
“We wanted her to train in Europe as it is one of the best places. The offer came directly from the Rafa Nadal Academy. They conducted a screening process for about a week or 10 days. After the screening, they offered her a contract for one year,” defined Kumar concerning the method of getting into the operating of working towards on the Nadal Academy.
“Maaya has been assigned a dedicated coach. She will also have a coach who could travel with her for tournaments. Maaya had visited a couple of other academies and in the end, we (her coach and family) decided to take up the offer from Nadal’s academy,” continued Kumar, offering a sign of the promise Maaya holds after a robust begin to her aggressive profession.
Her coach backed Maaya to make the bounce to senior tennis primarily based on how her improvement within the subsequent 12 months goes. Maaya had already reached the highest rank in junior tennis in India, however shall be hoping to make use of this spell on the Nadal Academy to make a seamless transition to greater and larger occasions on the ITF and in the end the WTA excursions.
“The next couple of years are very crucial for her. She needs to climb the ladder pretty quickly,” defined Kumar. “I think that the focus should be more on doing well at the senior level. She needs to start doing reasonably well in the women’s circuit in another year or year-and-a-half.”
Lastly, Kumar didn’t maintain again reward concerning his cost, fully supporting her and stating that she may very well be the way forward for tennis in India with effort and time, given her expertise and ceiling. “She has the potential to do well. On the women’s side, I think that she is the next bet for Indian tennis,” concluded the coach.
Maaya’s spell in Spain begins in January, the place she shall be below a one-year contract to begin with.