Ankita Raina and Karman Kaur Thandi motivating young girls to aim higher, says Ankita Bhambri

Ankita Raina and Karman Kaur Thandi motivating young girls to aim higher, says Ankita Bhambri

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Heaping praise on women's tennis aces, Ankita Raina and Karman Kaur Thandi, Ankita Bhambri has stated that their success has motivated young girls, who play tennis, to strive for more. Bhambri, coach of the women's team, is also expecting a positive outing at this year's Asian Games in Jakarta.

The Indian women's tennis team would certainly miss the presence of the prolific Sania Mirza for the upcoming Asian Games, but with young talents like Ankita Raina and Karman Kaur Thandi, who recently breached the top-200 rankings in WTA singles chart, being part of the women's squad, their future looks bright.

Ankita Bhambri, sister of men's singles player Yuki Bhambri, was more than happy with her team's performance in the recently concluded Fed Cup and praised the duo for motivating young girls, who look up to them.

“There has always been a huge gap as far as women’s tennis is concerned and there are not many opportunities. Plus it is always an unknown path for that single female coming from different cities. But now that Ankita and Karman are doing well, the other young bunch of players is moving up in the rankings. Slowly and steadily we will see them break into the top 200-150,” Bhambri told Scroll.in.

This 2018 season so far, has seen certain groundbreaking performance's from the Indian women's tennis players. Raina went unbeaten at the Fed Cup, where she also registered victories over top 100 players that included China's Lin Zhu and Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva, which boosted India’s bid to get a place in Asia/Oceania Group I. Apart from that, Thandi also made a mark by winning her first singles title on ITF Pro circuit in Hong Kong. furthermore, Rutuja Bhosale and Pranjala Yadlapalli have also recently won a $25K ITF doubles title.

All these achievements are a promising sign as the Indian team headed to Indonesia for this month's Asian Games where Ankita, Karman, Rutuja, Pranjala, Riya Bhatia and doubles specialist Prarthna Thombare would hope to carry on India’s medal-winning track record.

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