Prarthana Thombare: 5 things to know about the youngest member of India's Rio tennis contingent

Maharashtra’s Prarthana Thombare is going to represent India at the Rio Olympics, 2016. The 22-year-old is going to partner her idol and inspiration, doubles World No. 1 Sania Mirza in the doubles’ category, where she hopes to win a medal for the country and make everyone proud at home.

The pair have already won a bronze medal together, in the women’s doubles at the 2014 Asian Games.

Thombare is considered an upcoming talent expected to emulate Sania Mirza in tennis on the world stage. Let us now take a look a 5 facts about her:

1. Thombare belongs to a small village named Barshi in Maharashtra. She started playing tennis at a very young age, and used to travel to Solapur with her father to train and hone her skills as a player.

She had a talent for the game which was noticed by many right from her initial days as a player. She used to defeat girls older than her and more experienced in the sport with ease, and that is when her parents enrolled her into the nationals after noticing her rare skills.

“I used to travel 70 km every day to go and train and it was getting taxing on my body as I required adequate rest. Hence, my dad took the decision to move to Solapur.”

Thombare began winning titles early in her career

2. The prodigy went on the win the title in her very first Nationals attempt. She won the U-14 nationals title at the age of just 10. Her excellent performances on a consistent basis helped her to represent India in U-14, U-16, U-18 and U-21 categories.

She did not disappoint her supporters and proved her worth as a phenomenal tennis player when she was selected as the top player in the juniors’ category in Asia in the year 2008. She has also represented India in the Fed Cup, where she has a win loss record of 12-4.

Prarthana Thombare Sania Mirza
Thombare and her idol and partner, Sania Mirza

3. She enrolled herself in the Sania Mirza Tennis Academy, Hyderabad last year, and has seen a meteoric rise in her career ever since.

She is being coached by Sania Mirza’s father Imran Mirza, who has helped her improve her skills nuances of the game, and broaden her arsenal of service weapons. This has helped her win 11 titles in 2015 alone. She has won 17 doubles’ titles and 3 singles titles in her ITF career.

“After national success, we decided to move to the next level. That’s when I started training at the Sania Mirza Training Academy (SMTA).”

mirza thombare
Thombare is proficient at the doubles

4. She has been very successful as a doubles’ player, and has won 10 ITF titles in the category out of the 15 ITF finals she has played, which helped elevated her ranking on the world stage to No.325 in the double’s category in 2014.

  • She is currently ranked 209 in the world in the doubles’ event, and has been making rapid strides in the world of tennis, catching the attention of the greats of the game as one of the most talented and bright tennis stars in the country.
    Mirza Thombare 2016
    Caption

5. She partnered her idol and inspiration, Sania Mirza, at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea where the pair finished with bronze in the women’s doubles category.

Playing with the World No. 1 was a dream come true for Thombare, as she had only seen her play on television.

Mirza had a big role to play in her career as she motivated and inspired her to strive for glory, making the country proud in the process. She hopes to emulate the 29-year-old by giving her best on the court and win a Grand Slam title.

“In Solapur, I didn’t have a TV then. But we all knew about Sania Mirza, she was my idol and the reason why I took up tennis. Then I got to play with her at the Fed Cup for the first time and it was a dream come true. We have developed a good partnership, which worked at the Asian Games. I mean I don’t even need to go train abroad, when the world number 1 doubles player is from my own country. There is no better training than that.”