Hyderabad’s Sowjanya Bavisetti puts Indian team above all

Hyderabad: Making it to the Indian team for the upcoming Billie Jean King Cup Asia-Oceania competitions in place of Karman Kaur Thandi, who suffered a wrist injury, the Hyderabadi tennis player Sowjanya Bavisetti is determined to give her best to help India qualify for the World Group play-offs. The 28-year-old, who was in Australia playing […]

Hyderabad: Making it to the Indian team for the upcoming Billie Jean King Cup Asia-Oceania competitions in place of Karman Kaur Thandi, who suffered a wrist injury, the Hyderabadi tennis player Sowjanya Bavisetti is determined to give her best to help India qualify for the World Group play-offs.

The 28-year-old, who was in Australia playing a $60,000 tennis tournament, received a call to join the Indian. “I am very excited to play for India again. It has always been a goal to represent the country and win medals. This is a step closer,” said the southpaw who represented India in 2020 in the same tournament where they qualified for the World Group play-offs.

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Sowjanya was scheduled to travel to Thailand from Canberra, Australia, for another ITF but she returned home to join the Indian team. “When it comes to playing for the country, I don’t think we should think about anything else. We need to put everything aside and give priority to representing the country. When I got the call, I immediately said yes and I didn’t want to give it a second thought,” she added.

India will have a tough job at hand as they will be up against strong China and Japan in their group of six out of which top two will make the cut. However, Sowjanya is confident that the team has the wherewithal to upset any team. “Like our captain (Vishaal Uppal) said, on any given day, we are pretty sure that we can defeat any team. The goal is to give our best and stay in the present moment. We will take one match at a time.”

The Indian team comprising Ankita Raina, Riya Bhatia and Rutuja Bhosale besides Sowjanya will leave for Antalya, Turkey, where the tournament will be played, on April 7. It will be held from April 12 to 18 on clay surface. “We are going early to Turkey so that we can train and get used to the conditions. We have an upper hand as Ankita, Rutuja and I just played on clay in Australia. Riya has also been playing on clay.”

Speaking about her target, the 2019 national champion – both in singles and doubles – said, “My goal is to win every match I get to play for the country. We are going as a team and our collective goal is to qualify for the World Group play-offs.”

Sowjanya, who is set to achieve the ranking of 580 after a good run in Australia, hopes to play in Grand Slams this year. “I want to play in Grand Slams this year and want to improve my ranking. I don’t want to set any number and think about ranking points going into any tournament,” she concluded.

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