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          New Sania? 15yo Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi charts own course, with a Nadal assist

          Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi in action at the Mumbai Open Mumbai Open
          • Zenia D'Cunha
          Feb 9, 2025, 08:50 AM ET

          "I feel old," says 15-year-old Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi.

          This was after young kids kept approaching her for photographs and autographs after her matches at the Mumbai Open. "I feel happy, but old. The Under-12 nationals are starting, and some kids told me they are playing that. I won that tournament three years ago!"

          This sentiment was possibly Maaya's only misstep all through the week. The teenager was the breakout star of Mumbai Open WTA 125, an entry-level WTA event which is India's biggest women's tennis tournament. She capitalised on a fortuitous qualifying wildcard to make a stunning run to the semifinal, becoming the first Indian to reach the semifinals of a home WTA event since Sania Mirza, and her proactive performance showed that this was only just the beginning.

          Five matches in one week have been game-changing for her and for Indian tennis. From an unranked player, she will now be in the Top 700 in the senior circuit after earning her first WTA ranking points. All this in a tournament she had no plans of playing till the wildcard opportunity came knocking. And like a true champion, she made the best of her chances and could even hold her head high after the semifinal loss to former world No 21 Jil Teichmann.

          While this was a breakthrough run at the senior level, the teenager had been on Indian tennis hopes' radar for a while. Last year, she was offered a scholarship to train at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Spain. She'd trained for a bit, seen Nadal in training and will soon start there full-time, including school and a multi-pronged support team.

          The names associated with Maaya's early tennis career already are history-making: Sania Mirza and Rafael Nadal. You can see why when she plays her game - a naturally-gifted ball-striker with easy power, good groundstrokes depth, variety of shots speeds and an innate ability to reset mentally between points. There's also the sweet zing in her racquet swings that set the truly prodigious players apart. But perhaps the most impressive element is how her gifts are backed with credible stamina and an admirably composed mindset which makes her seem much older than 15. In fact, her origin story suggests, her thought processes were always older than her age.

          "I started tennis when I was 8, but it was just a recreational, after-school thing because my dad wanted me to play some sport and there were tennis academies around my house in Coimbatore," she tells ESPN. "I decided to go pro when I was 10, in fact I was the first one who said I'll do this professionally because I love to compete, I enjoyed competing even under pressure."

          This all-out mentality, evident in her game when she was stuck in several three-game battles this week, pushed her to go pro early on and win a number of junior events in the next few years. "I started ITFs at 13 and I won a couple in Chennai and Hyderabad when I was 14; that was the game-changer for me." With her ITF results, she is a Top 60 junior and has already been to a few junior Grand Slam qualifiers - making major draws directly is one of her goals this year.

          The story goes that her talent was spotted by the Nadal Academy at such ITF tournaments and she got the call up. "We got the invitation via email and we went there. It just happened we were looking for a base in Europe and we were so surprised by the invitation and it felt like everything was in place." Indeed, the Nadal Academy has been watching and positing about Maaya's run in Mumbai on their social media pages, signalling a very exciting time ahead when she moves to Mallorca in the next few weeks with her mother.

          The potential that the scouts at the academy would have seen in Maaya was unmistakable in Mumbai too, where her positive approach and shot-making won her a huge fan base and loud crowd support. Playing with that kind of noise and expectation helps her instead of adding pressure, she says. "One thing is that I always love to compete, so I've never stepped back. That is one thing that I'm proud of myself. Even I think my parents are proud of that too."

          It's striking to see a young Indian player with this kind of physical ability backed by a very sound mindset. Her parents, Rajeshwaran and Revathi, along with first coach Manoj Kumar, flew down from Tamil Nadu after her the qualifiers - and form a strong team around her. It's the absolute trust in her team that keeps her centred. "There have been many people asking me what is the good thing I've done to be here, I've always said that trusting the people around me. So I know that whatever my parents and coaches say, if I just blindly do it, I'll be doing well."

          Her mother in turn is very attuned to her game. Revathi was sitting in the furthest corner of the court during matches because she can get very anxious. But on the semifinals, she was in the coaches' box because she knew Maaya needed all the support that day.

          The semifinal loss, though, should take nothing away from Maaya's breakthrough. Her last three matches were on back-to-back days and that seemed to finally take its toll against the big-hitting Swiss left-hander in the semis. In all her young career so far, she has hardly had to play so many matches in a week and her endurance despite the three-set wins, is a huge plus.

          Right now, she can't really train very hard with weights in the gym because of her age but has a specialised routine with resistance training and nutrition. All of this will soon be taken care at the Nadal Academy, giving her the kind of background that very few young Indians players have access to. Fragility of body has, after all, been a pain point for many an Indian talent. Too many have shone bright early only to fizzle out as their shoulders and knees get worn out by big serves and bigger forehands.

          After such an unexpected bright start to the season and a much quicker transition to seniors, Maaya is still focussed on her short-term goals which are still, cleverly, focussed at the junior level. "To make top 10 juniors by the end of the year... By the time I finish junior, I should be there in the women's." She also wants to be in a junior Grand Slam soon, hopefully the next one at the French Open in May - both for her love of clay courts and her extended training on it in Europe.

          These are all very encouraging signs for the future, for her and Indian tennis. Yes, there is work to be done: on fitness and that second serve and the ability to sustain at the senior level. But there are also many reasons to believe that the new hope that Maaya provided this week could be a long-term success for years to come.