Shrivalli Bhamidipaty is happy to be the national tennis champion. In fact, the 22-year-old from Hyderabad was at the DLTA Complex, happy to find her name added to the list of champions in the banner, even though she was not competing in the Fenesta National championship starting on Monday.

However, from being a national champion, Shrivalli with her explosive game, has grown pretty strong in the international professional circuit, to train her sight on getting into the Australian Open next year.

“It is always nice to come to the National championship. I have happy memories. I was scheduled to compete this time, but had to change plans to prepare better for the international events”, said Shrivalli.

With admirable support from her family, Shrivalli has been able to build on her superb run to the final of the $25,000 ITF event in Indore in March. She competed in the USA, Thailand, Korea, Chnese Taipei and Australia with encouraging results.

Two quarterfinals back to back in Perth, Australia, in the $60,000 events have pushed her up in the ranking list to No.318, her career best. Prior to that she qualified for a similar event and played the second round, in Lexington, USA.

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“I could have won the quarterfinal against Madddson Inglis in Perth as I was leading 5-2 in the third set. It slipped away, but am growing as a person and a player, with all the experience,” said Shrivalli.

She will be competing in the two ITF events in Mysuru and Bengaluru for a fortnight before going to Australia for a series of tournaments.

“The aim is to take the ranking close to 200 so that I get into the Australian Open qualifying event. I enjoyed the conditions in Australia, though it was windy. The balls are heavy, as they play the same brand and quality at the Australian Open,” said Shrivalli.

As the top seed, and happy to be on top of her game, Shrivalli hopes to have a good run of matches over a fortnight in the events in Karnataka.

She opted to train in Delhi with coach Vishal Uppal for a few days now, as her coach in Hyderabad, Anand Kumar fell ill.

Vishal has been mentoring Shrivalli regularly, planning her tournaments, and constantly being in touch with her to monitor progress and lend clarity to her thoughts so as to propel her game to the next level.

A free-flowing stroke player, who serves big, Shrivalli is a delight to watch on a tennis court. She is determined to step into the higher echelons of the game, and thus, quite willing to relinquish her national championship throne, despite being soaked in nostalgia, walking around the arena and meeting friends.