Sahaja Yamalapalli scripted one of the biggest wins of Indian Tennis from the past 2-3 years when she defeated the World No. 93 Kayla Day in the opening round of the WTA 125 L&T Open here in Mumbai on Monday.

ITD caught up with her in the press conference post the match, to capture her thoughts.

Thoughts on the match

As you all know I’m a wild card here. First of all, I would like to thank MSLTA here and Sunder Iyer sir for giving me this opportunity to play on this big stage. The level is very high of course but to just be around them, you start believing it that okay I belong here. You see them, play with them and you you get that confidence. I was telling myself I can do this even though she’s the first seed, she’s top-100 ranked. I’ve never played a top hundred player before. 

I just wanted to give everything out there and see what happens. I got a couple of match points, I was like shaking in the point oh my god thinking like I’m winning this and then I’m really glad that I was able to pull it off. Kayla is a really good player so I’m happy to be able to pull it off.

How do you take this forward, what does this do for your confidence?

Of course it’s big for me especially at this point of my career. It’s the prime time and getting this win at this point is very motivating.

Kayla Day is ranked over 240 places higher but one didn’t get that feel when watching. Where you surprised by your level?

Not really because I know I can produce this. It’s all mental at the end of the day. I was just preparing myself like I can do this. I know I can do this because I was in the same position before against not top 100 player but top 200 player and then I get this close  and then not come on the winning side. At that time I was a little bit less confident. I wasn’t sure I could win that. 

This time all those experiences helped me to go into thinking like I can do this. I can beat anyone here. I was that confident and just going for it, so I wasn’t surprised. I knew I could produce that level. 

Which aspects of your game have you focused on developing over the past couple of years?

For sure it’s the fitness. Physical strength – I’ve built a lot over the years and then my forehand has been the biggest strength in my game and the serve lately. 

I’ve been working a lot on my serve because I have big ground strokes but my serve was very decent so I was working on that for the past couple of weeks. Today I was able to serve better than my last matches. 

What was going through your mind after losing the second set 6-1? 

In the 2nd set, I didn’t play very well. Kayla was solid and I was doing some unforced errors and I wasn’t able to hit the same way like I was in the 1st set. I thought okay, this has to stop. I cannot let her dominate, that’s it. I’m just gonna go for everything, just hit my balls and not hold back and if I make it, then I win. If I don’t it’s okay because the match is on my racket so that’s all I was thinking.

What was going through your mind when you were serving for the match?

The before game where I broke her serve, I wasn’t thinking about the score at all. I was just playing one point at a time. 

The last game I kind of felt my nerves especially when I had the match points. Anyone at that point would feel those nerves. I thought to myself that I cannot do this passive playing. I’m just gonna go for it because I was kind of holding back and hoping for her to miss but it’s not going to happen at this level. So I was just like okay I have to take charge and I have to create my opportunity.

Then I was just going for it and then in the end that ball landing out I was like thank you. 

When you knew that you were going to play Kayla Day, what was going through your mind and what was your game plan?

I’ve seen Kayla play before. When I was in the US, I was watching a lot of her matches. I didn’t play her but I’ve seen her play and I’ve been wanting to play her actually. I was kind of happy that I drew her because I wanted to really see where I stand at game level.

At this game it all comes down to if I make my shots or not because if I make my shots then I know I can win that and especially my forehand. So I know that I just have to stay in, step in and just rip those balls, serve and stay solid and that’s all. 

2 years ago, you were ranked in the 1000s. Now you’re No. 2 Indian, in 300 now – what are your future goals? 

I don’t want to say any ranking goal. I want to build on this, keep working on my game. There’s still a lot more to learn and a lot more things to improve. I just want to take this match, take the confidence and motivation and keep going. I want to at the end of the year get my ranking to a stage where I can play the Grand Slams qualies.

I’m gonna keep working hard and keep going towards it . 

Thoughts on the next match? 

I have no expectations, nothing. I’m just going to come in on Wednesday and just play like how I played today and see what happens.

Photos from the match