The road ahead in international tennis looks promising for 16-year old Pranjala Yadlapalli. The Guntur-native has been included in the ITF (International Tennis Federation) team for junior tournaments in Europe. This will also include the French Open and Wimbledon.
Continued success for Pranjala
Coached by Ilyas Ghouse and sponsored by the GVK Foundation, Pranjala Yadlapalli recently reached her highest ranking in the junior’s circuit of 22. This was soon after she won the singles and doubles titles at the Asian Junior Tennis Championship in New Delhi. It has however emerged that her inclusion in the ITF juniors’ team had already been decided even before she had won the dual titles in New Delhi.
Currently ranked at #23, Pranjala Yadlapalli is the only Indian player in the selected ITF squad for a training cum tournament schedule starting from May.
Based on the schedule of tournaments, Yadlapalli will play a couple of Grade-I events in Italy, following training in Europe between the 25th and 30th May. This will be followed by her participation in the French Open Juniors starting from the 31st of May.
Following Roland Garros, the teenager will head back home for a short while, before commencing training from the 22nd of June. This training camp will be followed by a Grade-I tournament at Roehampton, followed by the Wimbledon Juniors, scheduled to start from the 4th of July.
Strong future prospects
Yadlapalli’s selection is a matter of great pride for Indian tennis. It is also of utmost significance for women’s tennis in India, which still continues to be under-represented despite the successes of Sania Mirza at the highest level.
At present, Yadlapalli is also the only third highest ranking Asian junior’s player, after the junior’s no.1, Shilin Xu and no. 21, Wushuang Zheng, both of whom are from China. Pranjala Yadlappali looks promising and it will be interesting to watch her progress in the junior circuit this year.
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