An up-and-coming potential star for the future of Indian tennis received a boost this week, as 15-year-old Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi received the opportunity to travel to Europe to continue her coaching, at the prestigious Rafael Nadal Academy in Mallorca, Spain.
Maaya has been competing on the ITF’s junior tour in the last year, but will now have the opportunity to receive some elite coaching at one of the finest tennis facilities in the world. Rafael Nadal’s academy chooses a select group of players to travel to the recently-retired tennis legend's home at the island of Mallorca, where they gain access to some of the best coaches in the business.
Maaya, who hails from Tamil Nadu, will travel in January to begin her year-long stint at the Academy. Her coach of the last 5 years, Manoj Kumar, spoke to Times of India regarding the opportunity this presents to her.
“We wanted her to train in Europe as it is one of the best places. The offer came directly from the Rafa Nadal Academy. They conducted a screening process for about a week or 10 days. After the screening, they offered her a contract for one year,” explained Kumar regarding the process of entering the running of practicing at the Nadal Academy.
“Maaya has been assigned a dedicated coach. She will also have a coach who could travel with her for tournaments. Maaya had visited a couple of other academies and in the end, we (her coach and family) decided to take up the offer from Nadal’s academy,” continued Kumar, providing an indication of the promise Maaya holds after a strong start to her competitive career.
{{/usCountry}}“Maaya has been assigned a dedicated coach. She will also have a coach who could travel with her for tournaments. Maaya had visited a couple of other academies and in the end, we (her coach and family) decided to take up the offer from Nadal’s academy,” continued Kumar, providing an indication of the promise Maaya holds after a strong start to her competitive career.
{{/usCountry}}Her coach backed Maaya to make the jump to senior tennis based on how her development in the next year goes. Maaya had already reached the top rank in junior tennis in India, but will be hoping to use this spell at the Nadal Academy to make a seamless transition to bigger and bigger events on the ITF and ultimately the WTA tours.
“The next couple of years are very crucial for her. She needs to climb the ladder pretty quickly,” explained Kumar. “I think that the focus should be more on doing well at the senior level. She needs to start doing reasonably well in the women’s circuit in another year or year-and-a-half.”
Finally, Kumar didn’t hold back praise regarding his charge, completely supporting her and stating that she could be the future of tennis in India with time and effort, given her talent and ceiling. “She has the potential to do well. On the women’s side, I think that she is the next bet for Indian tennis,” concluded the coach.
Maaya’s spell in Spain begins in January, where she will be under a one-year contract to start with.