You need courage to pursue Tennis as career for a girl in India: Ankita Raina

The journey has been fantastic! All my dreams and goals have come true and been achieved so far…I have been the junior and the senior national champion in the same year 2009 at the age of 16 years. It was after that in 2010 February I made my debut in the Women’s Fed Cup team as a reserve and being the youngest player, with Sania leading the team in Malaysia. From 2010 to 2012 was my transition period from juniors to seniors and it was during those years I didn’t have any performance. In 2012 I won my first ITF in Singles and since then I have been doing well in singles and doubles. I won the women’s national championship again in 2013. With God’s grace I have been climbing the ladder and will hopefully keep going.
  
 

At what point did you realize tennis was ‘the game’ for you?
 

Since the day I started playing tennis…because even when I was a kid I always said I want to grow up to be a tennis player!
  

India has produced great doubles players, but has struggled to do the same in the singles category. Are you looking forward to breaking that trend? Why do you think India suffers from a shortage of quality singles players?
 

I don’t think that at all! We did have Sania Mirza in the top 30 of the WTA rankings, which is not a joke and which is not appreciated as much as it should be. And after her age group the lot of players either went to the States for university tennis or they weren’t too serious and that hard working or they weren’t very lucky with sponsorship or they didn’t have enough support from their family to pursue tennis as a career that too for a girl in Indian society you know how it works... 


Since the time you have turned pro, you have been constantly improving your game and it has reflected in the rankings. Do you think/believe you'll break into the top 100 in the WTA rankings by 2016? What is Ankita Raina's big dream?