Some thousand-odd kilometres away from tennis hotbeds such as California and Florida, where country clubs and academies come by the dozen, lies Carmel, Indiana; population roughly 100,000.
A northern suburb of the state’s capital city Indianapolis, Carmel is nestled amongst corn and soybean fields that dominate much of that region’s landscape. It might not seem like a natural cradle for tennis stars. But Carmel has charted an unlikely path as a small tennis spotlight.
Carmel is the hometown of not only Rajeev Ram, former No. 1 in the PIF ATP Doubles Rankings, but also Nishesh Basavareddy, the fast-rising 19-year-old who recently won his first ATP Challenger Tour title.
Basavareddy’s family moved from southern California to central Indiana when Nishesh was eight. His father, Muralikrishna, was relocated for his job with Toyota Industrial Equipment, which is headquartered in Columbus, Indiana.
“I think it is obviously a much different setting in Carmel, Indiana than L.A. It was a huge move for us, but I really liked it from the start,” Basavareddy told ATPTour.com. “The people here were really welcoming and we found a great coach in Bryan Smith, who I have worked with since I was eight years old.”
<img alt=”Nishesh Basavareddy and Rajeev Ram.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/10/15/15/25/basavareddy-ram-photo.jpg” />
Credit: Bryan Smith
The #NextGenATP standout Basavareddy and Ram first crossed paths at a tennis camp ran by their mutual coach Bryan Smith. The 31-time tour-level doubles titlist Ram and an eight-year-old Basavareddy traded baseline rallies, which started their bond.
“My coach was like, ‘I think I have a pretty special one here. He’s only eight, but it’s incredible what he can do,’” Ram recalled.
Ram, a 2002 graduate of Carmel High School, has been an instrumental voice for Basavareddy, who earned his diploma exactly two decades later. Basavareddy and Ram’s connection grew in 2020, when they often trained together during the Covid shutdown.
“I’ve practised with [Nishesh] probably as much as I’ve practised with anybody in my life back home,” Ram said. “He’s been a good enough player since he was about 13 or 14 for me to hit with.”
[ATP APP]
In 2022, Carmel’s neighboring city Zionsville hosted the Rajeev Ram Foundation Indy Challenger, which featured one of the most dramatic championship matches in recent memory at that level — China’s Wu Yibing fought off six championship points to claim the title. That week was also a memorable moment for Basavareddy.
The Rajeev Ram Foundation presented Basavareddy with the Raghav Ram Rising Star Award, which comes with a $5,000 grant to support a high-performance player in the USTA Midwest section. The award, named in honour of Rajeev’s late father Raghav, is a part of the non-profit organisation’s mission of fostering the positive impact of tennis on youth in Indiana through grants, scholarships and events.
“Any time you can get that kind of support, financially, knowing that people are backing you is huge,” Basavareddy said. “[Rajeev] has been super important for my growth because he played junior tennis, college tennis and made that leap to pro tennis after leaving the University of Illinois. I think having all of his advice, what to expect on the pro tour, and the tennis advice has been huge for me.”
<img alt=”Nishesh Basavareddy and Rajeev Ram.” style=”width:100%;” src=”/-/media/images/news/2024/10/14/23/57/basavareddy-ram-grant.jpg” />
Credit: Rajeev Ram Foundation
Throughout the 11 years that Ram has known Basavareddy, one trait stands out about the teenager and it seamlessly translates into his game.
“He is a very calculated, diligent individual. I think one of the best things about him is that he doesn’t take decisions lightly. He gathers as much information as he can and tries to make as educated of a decision as he can possibly make,” Ram said.
“And honestly he plays tennis a bit like that too. He’s just got such a great mind for the game that he’s able to dissect opponents and matches better than most. I think along with being a very polite and nice individual, I think just his ability to process information is for me what sticks out and he’s had that since I can remember.”
At a career-high World No. 195 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Basavareddy’s hard work has paid off. Earlier this month, he lifted his first ATP Challenger Tour trophy in Tiburon, California, just 80 kilometres north of Stanford University, where Basavareddy is a junior and has received ITA All-American honours the past two seasons.
Shortly after Basavareddy won the Tiburon title, his phone lit up with a message from former NFL star Andrew Luck, a Stanford alum who was the first pick in the 2012 NFL Draft and went on to be a four-time Pro Bowl selection.
“I know him relatively well. I had lunch with him twice last year, so that was pretty cool,” Basavareddy said. “He’s a super humble, down to earth guy. At one point in his career, when he was playing for the [Indianapolis] Colts, he lived five minutes from where I live. I think that’s a pretty cool thing that we share.”
Thanks to his collegiate success, Basavareddy has twice qualified for the ATP ITA College Accelerator Programme. Last year, he was the only player to qualify for both the ITF Junior Accelerator and ITA College Accelerator Programme.
Basavareddy used four main draw accelerator spots at Challenger 75 events in 2023, including when he made his first final at that level in Fairfield, California, where Ram was in attendance, supporting his mentee.
“I think it definitely helped me a lot,” Basavareddy said of the Accelerator Programme. “It allowed me to sort of skip a step in a sense and also just get some matches against really high level players when I wasn’t ranked that high.”
With less than two months remaining in the ATP Challenger Tour season, Basavareddy is aiming to make a late push and qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, which showcases the eight best 20-and-under players.
Basavareddy, a sparring partner at last year’s Nitto ATP Finals, is eleventh in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah. There are two other Americans ahead of him: Alex Michelsen (second) and Learner Tien (sixth), who both train in Newport Beach, Basavareddy’s birthplace.
“That’s a huge goal of mine and hopefully I can do well at the end of this year and give myself a chance to play at it,” Basavareddy said about his ambitions to qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF.
“It seems like a really cool showcase for the younger guys who maybe don’t get as much exposure if they aren’t playing on the main tour yet. I think it’s a really cool initiative and obviously [Carlos] Alcaraz has won the event. A lot of Top 10 guys have played it. I think it would definitely be cool to be a part of that.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]
Source link
