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Pune’s World No. 1 U-14 UTR ranker eyes junior grand slams
The Class 7 student of The Bishop’s School, Camp, achieved 11.35 points to secure top spot in UTR and become the only one Indian player in top 10 in the latest ranking
The journey of city’s Manas Dhamne from winning his first trophy in 2013 at (5 years 11 months) to summiting the No. 1 rank in Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) in Under-14 category is a story of single-minded pursuit to succeed in the sport.
The Class 7 student of The Bishop’s School, Camp, achieved 11.35 points to secure top spot in UTR and become the only one Indian player in top 10 in the latest ranking.
Universal Tennis Rating is a global tennis player rating system intended to produce an objective, consistent and accurate index of players’ skill in tennis. It rates players on a single 16-point scale.
“In this system, you achieve points when you defeat players from higher seeds at ITF tournaments and I have gained points by winning matches in the recent past,” said Dhamne, after his practice session at Metro city Sports Club, Kothrud, on Wednesday.
Ravindra Pandey, Dhamne’s coach, said that the youngster likes to play with seniors. “He always wants to compete with higher age group players. He used to play practices matches with coaches during his under-10 days and never feared losing a match as his aim was only to improve his game,” said Pandey who has been coaching Dhamne since he started playing tennis at Solaris Sports World from the age of five years.
“Fitness was the one factor on which I had to work to improve my strength and my gaining height has given me an advantage on the court,” said Dhamne who is supported by IMG Academy and HEAD, a sports equipment company.
At 13, Dhamne aims to make an entry into Junior Grand Slams.
“It is the next goal which we want to achieve. He has good backhand and needs to improve on other aspects – forehand, service, court control,” Pandey said.
With Dhamne eligible for playing ITF tournaments from this year, the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association had awarded him a wildcard for the tournament held in New Delhi last month. He reached the quarterfinal stage. Dhamne, on wildcard again, made it to the semis of the next ITF tournament in Gurugram.
“MSLTA is guiding and supporting me in the endeavour. Our state and particularly Pune has produced many good players in tennis players and the association is providing all necessary facilities,” Dhamne said.
Memorable achievements
2019: Winner in U12 Eddie Herr International Junior Championship, Florida
Third place in Orange Bowl International Championship Florida
Bronze medal, Qatar Asian Junior Team Cup U14, Miami, USA
Winner in U14 Les-Petis, Asian Playoffs, Bali, Indonesia
Winner in ITF Asian Under-12 tournament, Kazakhstan
2018: Under-12 national champion, Mumbai
