Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi is currently making waves in Indian tennis, raising hopes and making many young girls dream big.
Maaya, the 15-year-old girl from Coimbatore who sensationally entered the semifinals of the recent WTA 125 Mumbai Open, will be a bigger star than Sania Mirza, feels National tennis champion Vaidehi Chaudhari.
“She will be the next superstar, there is no doubt about that. She can do anything because she is just 15,” said Vaidehi in a chat with Sportstar after entering the National Games women’s singles final at the Parade Ground Stadium on Monday.
Vaidehi has watched Maaya from close quarters. In fact, both were across the net just four months ago at the Fenesta Nationals in New Delhi where she defeated the Coimbatore teen 6-3, 6-3 in the women’s singles final.
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“She is an amazing talent. And now she is improving a lot,” said the 24-year-old from Gujarat.
“Maaya is very confident for a 15-year-old, I’ve never seen anybody this confident for that age and she has that attitude to fight.”
“Even if she is down 0-5, she keeps fighting. She has good court coverage, great fighting spirit and also her movement and strokes are powerful. She can hit the ball well. She has good serves also. I feel very proud and I can say good players are coming. And it’s good to see India getting better.”
“Before, we thought that after our generation, nobody will be there but now, Maaya is coming. I started tennis very late, at 12 and I did not see Sania at her peak. Now, I’m happy I have somebody whom I can watch at she rises,” said Vaidehi, a former World Schools Games tennis gold medallist and a two-time senior National champion.
Sania reached a career-high 27 in the women’s world rankings in 2007 and Maaya, who will soon be moving to the Rafa Nadal Academy at Mallorca in Spain after being offered a 100 per cent scholarship, has a lot of time to get past that.
Maaya’s rise will also open the doors for women’s tennis in a big way, feels Vaidehi.
“Everyone is talking about it, everybody is happy to see her growth and that should help women’s tennis. It will be good if India can organise more women’s tournaments because tennis is an expensive game. It costs us a lot when we travel abroad,” said Vaidehi.