Battling self doubt: How Vaishnavi Adkar finished runner up in W100 Bengaluru

At the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium in Bengaluru last week, Vaishnavi Adkar made big strides.

Ranked India No 7 in women’s singles, she went on a winning spree, knocking out three higher-ranked opponents – two of them ranked in the top 150 of the world rankings – to finish as the runner-up at the ITF W100 Bengaluru.

Having entered the tournament as a wildcard, the 21-year-old Adkar wasn’t in anyone’s list of favourites at the start of the week. Yet by the end, she had jumped 224 spots to be ranked world No 466th in women’s singles. She is now also India's No 2 in the discipline, only behind Sahaja Yamalapalli (world No 397).

While it may appear to be an overnight success for outsiders, it was the culmination of years of hard work and dedication for Adkar.

"I think it was a wonderful week for me," said Adkar in a conversation with The Bridge. "If I'm being honest, I didn't really expect it either, but it's not like an overnight thing that just happened, and I just ended up playing the finals.

"It's just that I've been working for it for years and I've not had many good results, but I'm sure, like this is just a fruit of the efforts that I've been putting in, and it's just going to get better from here on," she added.

At first, Adkar’s statement of not having good results seems like a paradox. She was crowned the national champion just last year, while also ending India’s 46-year-old medal drought at the World University Games with a bronze.

But then the standards she expects of herself are way higher.

"It [last season] didn’t go the way I wanted it to," she said. "I think that’s just part of how the sport works. In tennis, there are more losses than wins.

"I had certain goals for myself with the rankings, and I couldn’t achieve them. So for me, it was very tough, especially on my mind, because I was putting in the work, but things still didn’t work out the way I wanted them to.

"I had started to doubt myself," she added.

Then came a decision, which, a few years down the road, Adkar and Indian tennis enthusiasts might look at as the turning point in her career. Eager to level up her game, she left behind the comfort of her home and childhood coach Kedar Shah and shifted her base to Bengaluru at the Rohan Bopanna Tennis Academy in December.

At first, it was just to challenge herself and try something new. But over the last two months, Adkar has fallen in love with the rejigged regimen, and the results are also starting to show.

While she admits to not having made a lot of technical changes, the training sessions in itself are now more structured with renewed focus on point play. There’s also been emphasis on being adaptive in matches, with Bopanna and Balachandran Manikkath – a veteran coach who has trained India’s top singles players – sharing their treasure of knowledge.

"Getting tips from people who have experienced it themselves makes a huge difference," said Vaishnavi.

"It’s a completely different perspective on how you read the game and not everyone understands what goes through a player’s mind," she added.

All these came in handy when she stepped onto the court armed with the wildcard in Bengaluru to become the first Indian woman after Sania Mirza to reach a W100 final.

"Last week in Pune, I had to retire midway in the first round due to cramps. So I knew it was very important for me to make the most of the chance I got here as a wild card," said Vaishnavi.

"The most important thing was not to feel the pressure and have self-belief. I just wanted to keep things clear in my head and play it one point at a time.

"And as I progressed deeper into the tournament, the self-belief and confidence gradually got better," she added.

Having climbed to a career high world ranking and India No 2, Adkar now has her eyes set on making it to the Indian squad for the home Billie Jean King Cup Asia Oceania Group I in April.

She has never made the cut for the prestigious event, but if the display in Bengaluru is anything to go by, Adkar is all set to take the step up.