NEWS
Karman Kaur Thandi is a 21-year old Indian professional tennis player who is already in the Top 200 of the WTA rankings. A prodigy of the sport, Karman is only the 6th Indian women to do so. Though Karman has been pretty successful at the international level since her junior years, it was her 1st ITF Pro Circuit singles title at $25,000 Hong Kong that put her among the big guns at such an early age.
After another title in WTA doubles at the 2018 WTA Taipei OEC Open with Ankita Raina, Karman made her Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open as a professional earlier this year. Surprisingly, she is already clicking 180 km/hr on her serves comfortably, pretty close to the top female athletes of the sport. She stands above 6 ft and wields raw power which needs to be harnessed in the right directions. The 21-year-old holds the future of Indian Tennis in her hands, resembling a talent close to and even beyond the likes of Nirupama Sanjeev, Sania Mirza, Shikha Uberoi, Sunitha Rao, and Ankita Raina.
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Karman Kaur Thandi |
| Age | 21 |
| Sport Category | Tennis |
| Date of Birth | 16 June 1998 |
| Hometown | Delhi |
| Height | 1.83m |
| Ranking | 180 (best) |
Karman Kaur Thandi was born on 16 June 1998 in New Delhi. She pursued her schooling from Ryan International School in Delhi. Her father, Chetanjit Singh decided against enrolling their only daughter to Tennis Academy at 8 years of age. She has been perfecting her forehand ever since. The results started showing up very soon as she dominated with her huge frame and mammoth forehand from an early age.
In 2012, Karman won the MCC Adidas Nationals U14 Singles and Doubles titles in Chennai. She later claimed her first ITF juniors doubles title while partnering Nikita Anand at a G5 event at Indore in April 2013. The dominance continued as she won the ITF Juniors singles title at the G4 event in Mumbai on December 2013. After achievements in the U-14 and U-16 levels in the country, Karman was selected for U-16 Junior Fed Cup Asia 2014 Oceania team in Kuching, Malaysia.
In October 2014, her inspiration, Serena Williams gifted an autographed racket to her after she clinched the WTA Future Stars U-16 title, Singapore without giving away a single set. Yes, she consecutively won all the sets against all the international contenders. Soon, the talented youngster was a part of the Delhi Dreams team at the Champions Tennis League. There she got to train with numerous top players in the game.
The best was yet to come from the young girl as she won her first G1 singles event on clay in Offenbach, Germany on June 2015. Till now she has always been dominating on the hardcourt, and this one on clay was definitely special to her as well. She was accompanied by India’s Sumit Nagal who claimed the boy’s title at the same event. Her journey so far looks pretty smooth from outside. But Tennis is an expensive sport and to stay at the top at the international level; one needs world-class facilities to train. While she was dominating at the international level, her parents were out arranging for funds for her daughter’s foreign tours.
The dedication and hard work paid off after she made her junior Grand Slam debut in the US Open in September 2015. Karman lost in the Round of 16 to world No 2 Dalma Galfi. Nonetheless, her performance took notice of Indian tennis legend Mahesh Bhupati. He assisted her in getting the Virat Kohli Foundation scholarship, effectively giving her financial access to the training required to progress to the next level. There has been no looking back ever since then for Thandi.
Karman won her first ITF Pro Circuit doubles title while partnering Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal at ITF $10000 Gulbarga. After making it to the round of 16 in singles and Quarter Finals in doubles at the Junior Australian Open, she joined the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France. The academy was run by Patrick Mouratoglou, who has been the coach to players like Serena Williams and Stefanos Tsitsipas. This gave her access to a whole other level of education in the sport which she capitalised on beautifully. She achieved her career-high ranking of No. 32 on January 2016.
In June 2018, she won the ITF Pro Circuit singles title at $25K Hong Kong. Her first singles title finally after losing the first four in the finals. Soon after this, she won her first WTA doubles title at the 2018 WTA Taipei OEC Open. She achieved the feat while partnering fellow Indian legend, Ankita Raina.
| Ranking | Singles | Doubles |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 198 | 331 |
| 2017 | 310 | 321 |
| 2016 | 599 | 615 |
| 2015 | 774 | 951 |
| 2014 | 1029 | – |
| (Main Draw Only) | Win | Loss |
|---|---|---|
| Current Year Singles (WTA and ITF World Tennis Tour main draw) | 2 | 3 |
| Current Year Doubles (WTA and ITF World Tennis Tour main draw) | 1 | 1 |
| Career Singles (WTA Tour and ITF World Tennis Tour main draw) | 112 | 79 |
| Career Doubles (WTA Tour and ITF World Tennis Tour main draw) | 68 | 54 |
| Career Singles (ITF World Tennis Tour main draw) | 108 | 69 |
| Career Doubles (ITF World Tennis Tour main draw) | 60 | 50 |
Karman Kaur Thandi was born in New Delhi, in a Punjabi Jat family. Her father, Chetanjit Singh is a Delhi-based businessman who deals in LED sliding light display and electronic products. And her mother is a housewife. Her mother travelled with the 8-year-old Karman to the tennis court daily to sit and support her daughter. Little she knew that the whole nation would be sitting and supporting her someday. She did her schooling from Ryan International School in Delhi and Graduation from Jesus and Mary College Delhi. Her childhood coach Aditya Sachdeva groomed the young girl to what she is now. Also, Bastien Fazinceni has a significant influence on the rise of Karman’s career. He was her coach in France in 2016-17.
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