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India No. 3 Rutuja Bhosale has been forced to pull out of the 2023 Tennis Premier League, having contracted dengue a couple of weeks ago. However, the ace tennis player is recuperating well and has a lot planned ahead.
Firstly, though, Bhosale cannot help but highlight the positive shift that events like the Tennis Premier League have brought about for tennis in India - simply by making the sport more accessible to a rather alien audience.
She told Sportskeeda in an exclusive chat:
"I mean the the format is really entertaining, it's very easy to understand because it's just 20 points, a normal tennis match is much longer and, not everuone wants to sit there and watch to full three or five foods."
"Tennis Premier League makes it fun to watch because every point makes a difference, it's very quick and fast-paced," she added.
The Shrirampur, Maharashtra-born player knows tennis isn’t for everyone and joked about even her own friends and family not always making it to her full-length matches. That, she said, however, is not a problem at the Tennis Premier League, with its easy 20-point scoreline and short matches. The Tennis Premier League will commence from 12th December and can be viewed on the Sony Sports Network.
Be it the Tennis Premier League or Asian Games, Rutuja Bhosale is a team player
It helps that Bhosale has always been a team player and enjoys the whole vibe of team competitions like the Billie Jean King Cup or the Asian Games.
"I've been on the professional to for years and tennis is an individual sport, you do all of all the things on your own and it gets really lonely, so being a part of team is obviously fun. Like you said, it's fun, you know, you you wake up and then there's a whole team," Bhosale said.
Call it destiny, but one of the biggest moments of Bhosale's career came at a team competition - the Asian Games, where she partnered Rohan Bopanna to a gold medal in the mixed doubles. She remembers the match point well, recalling her senior partner coming up to her and urging her to conjure the best serve that she has ever hit. And that's exactly what she did.
"The whole week was just him trusting me and I was able to produce, you know, some of the best tennis I've ever played," she said. "And when I hit the ace, the entire stadium was quiet because they were all rooting for the Chinese Taipei saide, when he turned around, and picked me up."
"I think, and more than winning the gold It was the fact that he came to me and he picked me up, and it's like, these moments is something that, you know, I'll cherish forever," Bhosale added.
Bhosale took conscious note of the rich legacy of Indian tennis, with milestones set by the likes of Bopanna, Sania Mirza and the Leander Paes-Mahesh Bhupati combine. But the change of guard was inevitable and she feels that the future is in good hands.
Bhosale, and the likes of Sumit Nagal, Ankita Raina and Karman Thandi, have kept the Indian flag flying high and she was quick to acknowledge the support that has come her way both from the All India Tennis Association and the Punit Balan Group. She said:
"I mean, it's easier said than done because what Sania, Rohan have achieved, it's very hard to replicate that in the first place and to get where they are that needs to be a lot of funding and a lot of support."
"AITA are doing such a great job now, I don't, have to leave India until February because there's so many tournaments," Bhosale added.
After a grueling 2023 season that saw her win a singles title on the ITF circuit and reach a career-high ranking of No. 313, Bhosale has her eyes set on bigger things.
Post the Indian swing, she hopes to get her world ranking high enough to get into Grand Slams - the French Open and Wimbledon to start with. The journey to the top is often filled with hardships and struggles, and Bhosale knows it all too well.
She is packed and ready to get on the road again, picking every opportunity to represent the country at the global stage and lifting the glittering silverware at the end of a gruelling week's work every now and then on the way.
