Roland Garros calling…

Mysuru: City’s budding tennis player Ishaayu P. Desai has qualified to take part in the Roland Garros Junior Grand Slam Wild Card Series Tennis Tournament to be held at Hainan, China, starting from Aug. 8.

Currently, ranked Karnataka’s No. 1 in U-16 category, Ishaayu is ranked No. 8 in the country and No. 9 in ATF rankings. Having started his tennis journey at the age of 11, Ishaayu picked up the skills in a fast pace to become one of the most promising youngsters in the country. Over the past few years, he has won a number of AITA and ATF tournaments. He is now eyeing to qualify for the French Open Junior Championship to make a mark for himself.  

The tournament being held in China is jointly organised by Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) and the French Tennis Federation to provide opportunity for the top U-16 players in Asia to play at historic Roland Garros Stadium in Paris.

Ishaayu, who is an admirer of Novak Djokovic, dreams of representing India in Junior Davis Cup and making into all four junior Grand Slams – French Open, Australian Open, US Open and Wimbledon. Through this qualification, Ishaayu has also become the first player from Mysuru to have qualified for French Open Juniors qualifying tournament.

Supporting Ishaayu’s dreams are his parents Prasanna and A.C. Nagashree, residents of J.P. Nagar in Mysuru. While Prasanna works as a clerk in the Department of Excise, Government of Karnataka, in Mysuru, Ishaayu’s mother Nagashree quit her bank job to dedicate her time to her son. She travels with him throughout the country and manages his schedule.

Having started his tennis training under coaches Ajith and later Raghuveer Ponnuswamy, Ishaayu is currently training under Gokul at the South Western Railway Tennis Courts in Vontikoppal and Henry Praveen at Trinity Challengers Tennis Academy, Hyderabad.