Sahaja Yamalapalli
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Sahaja Yamalapalli | |
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| Born | October 29, 2000 Khammam, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Alma mater | Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas |
| Occupation | Tennis player |
| Height | 5 ft 7 in (170 cm) |
Sahaja Yamalapalli (born 29 October 2000) is an Indian professional tennis player. She is India number 3, and world number (WTA) 340. She won three professional singles titles
1. ITF $25K at Solapur, Maharashtra in December, 2023
2. ITF $25K at Gururgram, Haryana in July 2022
3. ITF $15K at Nagpur, Maharashtra in March 2022
4. Indian Women Tennis team member of Billie Jean King Cup (Fed Cup) 2023
She is considered an aggressive player with powerful groundstrokes. She turned pro in September 2021 and finished the year with the year-end ranking of WTA-1414. She has been consistently climbing up the rankings since then. Her current ranking is 456 globally, so she aims to reach the top 300 before the end of 2023.
Before becoming a pro, she played college tennis at Sam Houston State University, Texas, USA. She graduated in May 2021 with a food science and nutrition degree. She finished her college tennis career with an extraordinary performance of 18-0 (win-loss) in the top 1 lineup of the team in the final season.
In her college tennis, she excelled at her game level under the coaching of Robert Hubbard with the overall statistics in dual matches 52-11 (win-loss) and Southland Conference matches 34-3 (win-loss).
Early life
Sahaja Yamalapalli was born on 29 October, 2000 in Khammam and brought up in Hyderabad. She was joined by her parents in tennis mainly for keeping her body healthy but gradually she used to play with good focus and determination. Till her 10th standard she had continued her practice at Saroor nagar stadium, Hyderabad and few months at L.B.stadium. After 10th standard she was joined in Sinnet Tennis Academy and took the training under coaches Ravi Chandra Rao and Prahlad Kumar Jain and currently training at PBI (Peter Burwash International) tennis academy, Bangalore.
She attended Geetanjali Vidyalaya school from 5th class to 7th and Vignan Global Gen School from 8th to 10th. And Siddhartha Junior women’s college for Intermediate and graduated from Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, USA.
Tennis career
Yamalapalli began playing tennis at ten and turned professional in 2021. In the early days, apart from her regular practice, she was guided by her father regarding tennis and academics. She only participated a little in the junior circuit at 14. After that, she chose tennis as a career and took full-time practice without attending regular college.
College tennis (2017–2021)
Sahaja got undergraduate admission into Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, USA, in 2017 (Fall) for having a National women's ranking of 28 and UTR -10 based on athletic scholarship. She took Food Science and nutrition as a major that could help her maintain her diet plan. Her college coaches, Mr. Robert Hubbard and Robin Hubbard, played an essential role in transforming her game to the next level. She won many awards and rewards in studies and sports during college tennis.
- Awarded as a Southland Conference Women tennis player of the year 2019 & 2021
- Best female sophomore student athlete 2019.
- Awarded as a Most Valuable Player (MVP) 2019
- Awarded 3 times as a Southland Conference women's tennis Student-Athlete of the year 2018, 2019 and 2021 for being top in both studies and sports
- First women’s tennis player who earned ITA national ranking 110 In Sam Houston State University’s history and who is unbeaten in the season with 18-0 record at top 1 line up in her university’s history
- Ranked No. 18 in the ITA Texas region women tennis players
- She also became the first player to ever crack the ITA/NCAA national ranking in her University
College Tennis Statistics
| Year | Dual Matches | Southland |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 18-0 | 11-0 |
| 2020 | 11-2 | 3-1 |
| 2019 | 18-5 | 10-1 |
| 2018 | 16-4 | 10-1 |
| Total | 63-11 | 34-3 |
Professional Circuit (2023-2024)
Sahaja lifted 3rd International singles title in Solapur, India by defeating WTA-186 ranked Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) with 6-4,6-3 in ITF $25K Women Tennis Tournament in December 2023 and with this her world ranking jumped to 340 (Career High at this time).
Professional circuit (2021–2022)
Sahaja turned pro in 2021 September by making her first ITF tour to Tunisia for playing ITF $15K tournaments.
She achieved rank WTA-1403 there by reaching her highest Pre-Quarter finals round. After that played at Cancun, Mexico and improved the WTA ranking to 1293.
After returning to India in Jan 2022 she participated in 4 back to back ITF 15K tournaments in Jhajjar (Haryana), Gurugram (Haryana), Ahmadabad (Gujarath) and Nagpur (Maharashtra) in India respectively. Only in Jhajjar she reached pre-quarter final and lost in first round in next two. But in Nagpur she won ITF $15K singles title by defeating previous 3 tournaments winners Anna Ureke(RUS),winner at Jhajjar; Punnin Kovapitukted (THA), winner at Gurugram and Emily Seibold (GER), winner at Ahmadabad. With this win she improved her WTA rank to 989.
Sahaja participated at Gurugram, India for 2 ITF $25K back to back tournaments In Jun/July 2022 and lost in first round to Karman Kaur Thandi (India) who was the winner of first tournament. But in 2nd tournament Sahaja defeated previous week winner Karman Kaur Thandi in first round and lifted the singles title by defeating better players in other rounds. In finals she defeated Victoria Morvayova (SVK) with 6-3, 7-6. This win gave her a great jump in WTA rankings and moved 989 to 450.
References
External links
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