There was a time Sharmada Balu recalls when she stepped foot into the world of sports as a gymnast at the age of 4 before she started playing tennis. 

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By Lavanyaa Sreekirishnan 

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( Courtesy: Source )

 

Ten long months after an ankle injury she decided to get back on the court and train abroad in Barcelona and Germany and also played many tournaments in Europe. She won the gold medal at the South Asian Games later that year, and said, "those were probably the last years I competed before I stopped; I started getting wrist injuries, and I was diagnosed with tendinitis, which is in both my ankles and my knees, and it was getting really difficult to compete, at the time, I didn't have any financial assistance either.” Her last tournament was in Pune where she won the doubles. “That was kind of bittersweet”, she said.

 

 

While 2020 took a toll on many, Sharmada Balu chose a different path and decided to make a comeback five years after she continued her commitment to the sport. She said that even when she was playing competitively before, she found it difficult to complete a year like this, but considering that she had to start from scratch, it has been a great year for her, health and fitness-wise.

 

 

“I was 7 when I started playing tennis and moved to Boopathy’s tennis academy when I was 9 and have been playing there ever since,” she said. She was the youngest to be selected for the Apollo tiles mission and was later sponsored by them from the age of 12 until she was 16. After that, she went through a dry stretch in the juniors when she hadn’t won a competition for three years. 

 

 

At 16, she won the under-16 nationals, followed by victories in the under-18 nationals in both singles and doubles. “I started peaking I would say, and that’s when I decided to turn pro,” she said, “When I was 17, I started playing the ITF women’s pro circuit in India.” She began winning from the third tournament, a $10,000 event in Lucknow, and her ranking began to rise. In 2012, she competed in the Fed Cup and was shortlisted to compete in the Olympics; however, a few days before the selections, she twisted her ankle, forcing her to miss eight months of tournaments and practice. She said, “it was brutal because I was playing some of the best tennis of my life and suddenly I was in a wheelchair.”

 

 

Her goal for this year, she said, was to see if she could compete and if she still had whatever it takes to get there and if her body could handle it all. “It was more about testing the waters and I have surpassed that goal,” Balu said. 

 

 

 

 

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