Ankita Raina becomes India’s first WTA champion after Sania Mirza

With the historic win in Melbourne, Indian tennis player Ankita Raina has become the first player since Sania Mirza to win a WTA tournament. The event may not be as large or significant as the Australian open where all the star power is there but the win for Raina along with her doubles partner Russian teenager Kamilla Rakhimova. 

The duo beat Russian players Anna Blinkova and Anastasia Potapova at the Phillip Island Trophy, WTA 250 event in Melbourne. The Russian duo was defeated by 2-6, 6-4, 10-7 and that led to Raina winning the biggest title of her career. 

After winning the title, Raina said, “I have to pack so much stuff that’s been here for over a month,” she says, almost lamenting. This is how it is, the match is over, the tournament is over, and now you have to fly to a new place. You don’t have much time to celebrate. Maybe I can try to have a good dinner; I hope I can do that at least.”

Most people would imagine that after winning a tournament a player will celebrate the moment and spend sharing their experience of the win but this is not the case for Ankita. The tennis star revealed that she has no time for celebrations on Friday as she has to keep moving for another tournament. 

However, the tennis star also said that she is indeed very happy with the title and it has motivated her to perform even better in the future. She also added that doubles has always mattered more to her. Be it teh results, performance or ranking, doubles is where she analyses herself the most, she added. 

Raina is currently the highest-ranked Indian tennis player in the world both in doubles and singles. It has been a good busy year for the 28-year-old, who came to Australia on January 16. It was hectic on the players as first they had to go under 14 days of quarantine upon arrival. But fighting all those obstacles, Raina managed to get herself in the main draw of the doubles event. 

With this, she became only the fourth woman from India to compete in a Grand Slam. Before the Australian achievement, it was in 2018 in Chinese Taipei along with her compatriot Karman Kaur Thandi when she experienced the biggest career win but as she collected a USD 4000 cheque she surpassed the previous win.