Prerna Bhambri is just another young Indian player trying to make it in the world of professional tennis. However, unlike other unknown Indian players, Prerna carries a famous last name in Indian tennis and heavier expectations.
Prerna is the cousin of Yuki, Ankita and Sanaa Bhambri - Yuki is by far the most accomplished of the family having been ranked #1 in the world junior rankings a few years ago and also winning the junior Australian Open singles title. Yuki is still transitioning to the seniors game and is now ranked around 400 in the world.
On Friday at the $10K ITF event in New Delhi, 19 year old Prerna reached her first ITF final when her opponent Desiree Bastianon retired early in the third set of their semi-final. Bhambri was leading 4-6 6-3 1-0 and now plays top seed Keren Shlomo in the final. Shlomo defeated 16 year old Indian Ratnika Batra 1-6 6-1 6-3 in the other semi-final.
“All those guys have really achieved a lot, I think I have a long way to go." Prerna said in an interview to one of the leading Indian newspapers."2010 was a hard year for me. I was in my last year of school, so I had to sit for my exams. I took a complete break from tennis from January to May last year. I was playing perhaps an hour or two of tennis in that period,” she says.
Now ranked 854 in the world on the WTA rankings, Prerna will continue grinding the lower-leagues of world tennis in an attempt to make a famous first name for herself.
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