WTA Mumbai Open: Shrivalli stuns Grammatikopolou with her explosive game, reaches final qualifying round

India’s Shrivalli Bhamidipaty in action against Greece’s Valentini Grammatikopolou in the first qualifying round of the WTA Mumbai Open on Saturday. | Photo Credit: KAMESH SRINIVASAN/THE HINDU

With her big serves and explosive strokes, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty is the most exciting female tennis player to watch in the country.

The two-time National champion, who won her maiden ITF women’s title in Bengaluru in November, may not be that consistent owing to the style of her game, as she goes for broke at every opportunity.

On Saturday, however, on the newly laid black court of the Cricket Club of India (CCI), the 22-year-old Shrivalli showed a rare maturity to match wits against Valentini Grammatikopolou. The small-built 26-year-old Greek, who had reached the second round of US Open, was ranked a career best 143, winning 16 singles titles on the Tour with equal felicity on clay and hard courts.

After a hesitant start when she trailed 1-3, Shrivalli played with an impressive blend of precision and power, striking with poise and punch on both the flanks, to beat the second seed 6-3, 6-2 in the first qualifying round of the L&T WTA 125 Mumbai Open.

“It was great to have a debut like this in the big event. We had arrived late after playing in Indore yesterday. Had very little practice here. But, it was a big opportunity. I told myself to be patient. Once I got a hang of the court, which was slow, I caught hold of my opponent”, said Shrivalli, understandably proud of her effort.

Shrivalli had won three singles matches in a series of five recent tournaments in Solapur, Navi Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Indore.

“I am glad that we have so many tournaments at home now. We are able to play without being under pressure to capitalise on the few chances we had earlier. We are exposed to so many top quality players that the quality of everyone’s game has gone up now, and anybody can win on a given day”, said Shrivalli.0

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Even though everyone has been talking high about her game, Shrivalli gained considerable confidence by winning the Fenesta National championship last year. She is grateful to her long time coach Anand Kumar and mentor Vishal Uppal for trying to help her thrive on her strength.

“Both my coaches tell me to focus on my strength and keep calm”, she said.

Drawn to play Viktoria Morvayova of Slovakia in the second and final qualifying round, Shrivalli said that she would continue to enjoy competing against high quality players and try to have fun.

“I have nothing to lose. My focus is to play my best game”, said Shrivalli, quite adept at being focused on the process and not unduly worry about the results.

With Zeel Desai outplaying another Greek, seventh seed Sapfo Sakellaridi, and Vaidehi Chaudhari getting past fourth seed Dejana Radanovic of Serbia after five games as the latter was sick, it did look that the Indian diamonds were getting polished well to shine bright on the professional circuit.