Yuki Bhambri — All set for the top league?

Everyone knows that Yuki Bhambri is the next big thing in Indian Men’s Tennis for quite some time now. But when will this lanky boy, from a family of tennis-playing siblings, actually migrate to the highest level of tennis? This is a million dollar question, with every Indian tennis fan waiting for this transition to happen swiftly.

But with Yuki’s wins in the ATP Challenger level tournament held at Fergana, Uzbekistan on Sunday, this might just be the beginning of something big.

A resurgent Yuki won his first ever ATP Challenger singles title of his career after scoring a facile straight—set win over Israeli fourth seed Amir Weintraub.

The unseeded Indian, ranked 297, recorded a 6—3 6—3 win in one hour and 20 minutes over the world number 185 in the summit clash of the USD 35,000 hard court event.

The victory pushed Yuki to 218 in the rankings, which makes him the highest—ranked Indian in the ATP charts (due to Somdev’s prolonged injury layoff).

It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the former junior world number one since he turned pro and started playing at the highest level. His cause was further dented through a string of injuries, hence side-lining him for quite some time. Tomic Bernard, an Australian, and Yuki’s competitor during his junior days, is already ranked 28 in the world and competes with the who’s who of world tennis. Of course being an Australian gives you an advantage in getting wild cards for all ATP events in Australia as compared to only one ATP event in India.

But Yuki is still very young and as long as he keeps improving and most importantly, stays healthy, he can still make good progress. Let’s hope he carries forward the momentum through the remainder of the year and climbs the ATP rankings ladder in swift fashion.