Who is Astra Sharma, the Indian-origin tennis player making waves in Australia?

Laxmi Poruri was making waves in the US tennis circuit by the time she was 15. America had an Indian-American lead the way in female tennis ranking and it was truly a historic moment for her. Similarly, there have been many Indian NRIs or citizens of Indian descent living abroad who have represented and played sport for their country of residence. One woman making headlines in Australia is 22 year old Astra Sharma.

She is the daughter of an Indian father and a Singaporean Chinese mother. She pursued tennis from an early age and went to Vanderbilt University to pursue her higher studies. Despite nagging injuries, she continued her fine form and became the South East Conference player of the year in 2017 along with bagging American Honours in the singles and doubles tennis categories. She had to balance her education and her tennis for the past 4 years while gaining her undergraduate degree but has managed her rankings very well by jumping about 5 spots into the top 250. She broke out into the ITF circuit initially and managed to play a lot of her tournaments in the second half of the year while balancing her academics. This benefited her as she became rose to rank 2 in the US Women’s Tennis rankings.

She won her first title in 2015 in Egypt and this helped her singles rank move upwards from 787.Thereafter she competed at the European ITF Tennis circuit before doing the North American tennis circuit a couple of years later.

Astra won her first title in 2015 in Egypt and this helped her singles rank move upwards from 787

The biggest highlight of her career by far would be reaching the final of the Australian Open in 2019. It was a dream come true on home turf for her after years of hard work and travel across the world. Despite losing the mixed doubles final, Astra Sharma will be raring to go again and build on her previous performances at all grand slams. At the age of 22,she was ranked with a career high rank of 89 in the singles category and 108 in the doubles category. In the run up to her final match, she defeated pairs including Eduardo Roger Vasselin, Bethanie Mattek -Sands, and Nicole Melichar as well. It is only upwards for her from here with the Australian who sure to be in for a promising career in the next few years.

Initially, her professional career seemed threatened due to potential long term injuries and it was clear that there had to be the best form of treatment for them. This was also the reason for taking up a scholarship to pursue higher studies abroad. Her father, Devdutt Sharma gave credit in an interview to the coach in Vanderbilt University who developed her game and trusted her. He said, “He gave a full scholarship to an athlete who turns up and can’t even play for a year but he stuck with her. He gave her a redshirt which means she would be allowed to play a further 4 years. Also on scholarship but not playing which was how much trust Geoff had in her.” This definitely helped Astra Sharma who could focus on the mental and off court aspects to the game. She utilised this opportunity to work on her swing, co-ordination, injuries and came back even stronger.

Devdutt Sharma will be patting himself on the back for allowing his daughter to move away from home to pursue tennis and taking all the calculate decisions. There is always a sense of pride even when Indian origin foreigners take to the sports arena and prove their worth. The Indian sporting fraternity will be hoping for the same when Astra steps onto the court for the next decade or so and would be hoping to see her name etched upon laurels in the years to come.

Also read: Top 5 famous tennis players of Indian origin