Junior World No. 7 17-yr old Nishesh Basavareddy took time out to speak to Indian Tennis Daily after the French Open on his experience playing in Milan and on his Roland Garros debut
After a long time, you played on European Tourneys. How do you compare the competition and the surface?
Most of the European players skipped the South American Junior tournaments. So the competition in these two events was definitely much higher.
It was good for me that I was able to get a lot of wins, especially in Milan. Here in Paris as well, my opponent played really well. I had my chances but overall the trip was a good learning experience.
Can you talk through each of your top-10 wins in Milan?
World No. 10 Bor Artnak: I had beaten him at the Criciuma final in Brazil. I had beaten him easily there but that was a different match, probably he had some nerves there. I didn’t know what to expect but I played really well and led 60 40 in the match before he fought back a little bit. It was a clean match overall.
World No. 5 Gonzalo Bueno: I had a straightforward match in Brazil winning 60 61, which was one of my best matches. In Milan – I knew he was going to change his tactics up and he was much more aggressive and I was a bit passive but I was able to fight through that much.
World No. 2 Daniel Vallejo: He was extremely consistent as expected and it was probably one of the best matches of the year for me. He is the type of player who competes all the time and the atmosphere was also the best that I have played in so far. There were about 400 to 500 people watching us that day, which was really cool.
You also won the doubles title in Milan. Wasn’t it too taxing on your body?
At the end of the tournament, I definitely felt it. I had some niggles. Thankfully most of the doubles matches were pretty quick, so it helped.
How do you review the match against Mika Brunold in Roland Garros?
This was my first Grand Slam. So it was a good experience to be there next to all these pros and the best juniors. I will take this experience to the next two slams.
Regd the match – I will just take the learnings from it. My Coach at home watched it and the coach here too.
You mentioned in the past – that for the Pro circuit, your game is there but that you just need to add physicality. Do you still think the same?
I still think the same. I am getting better physically every week with my trainers and physios at home with their training program that has been setup for me. It is just a continual work that will improve as the year goes.
What are your next set of tournaments?
Roehampton, Wimbledon. Then I will probably play a Futures in the middle and then play the USTA Kalamazoo event and then a combination of Futures / training block and then play the US Open.
Then I will go to Stanford after that.
Photos from Roland Garros
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