US plunge toughens Bengaluru boy Kriish Tyagi’s play, personality

Kriish’s interest in tennis has made him one of the country’s budding junior stars also leading him to the junior Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2025.

Bengaluru: Comfort becomes a long lost friend. Familiarity feels like a distant relative. Everything and everyone close to the heart is no longer a stone’s throw away. Well aware of the absence of all such luxuries he was signing up for, promising player Kriish Tyagi took the plunge to study and play collegiate tennis at Texas A&M University in the USA. 

The benefits of living on his own for the first time as a teen, for over a year now, is already beginning to show positive signs, feels the 19-year-old Bengaluru boy who has been India’s Junior no. 1, won the under-14, U-16, U-18 National Championship titles and reached as high as 33 in the Junior ITF world ranking.   

“Honestly, before I went to college, I was expecting it to be tough because I’m going to be alone,” says Tyagi. 

“Here, my family was always there to do everything. There, I do everything from taking care of my food, classes, physio, training... by myself. That has definitely made me more responsible.” 

Tyagi’s era of ‘taking ownership of my own life’ has not only raised the quality of his game but also helped develop a mature approach to handling challenges on court. Both of which were evident at the ongoing Karnataka Open – the first of the two back-to-back ATP Challenger events at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium here.

The world No. 1322 wild card entrant Tyagi, playing his first Tour-level tournament of the season, defeated higher-ranked Japanese -- Taiyo Yamanaka (WR 857) and Yuta Kawahashi (WR 637) -- in the opening two rounds. His big kill came on Thursday when the local lad ousted world No. 328 Hamish Stewart of Great Britain.  

“I’m mentally stronger now. I know no one’s going to help me there. And I mean, that correlates on the court. 

“Comparatively, there are more players in the US who have the same goals as you to become a good professional. Watching them being disciplined and trying to match their intensity along with managing my studies has helped me a lot,” offers Kriish, who is doing his majors in business and finance. 

The urge to learn and gain as much knowledge perhaps comes from the fact that Kriish picked up a tennis racquet as a 10-year-old. According to experts, that is a touch late as kids generally begin playing between the ages of 5-7.

“I never got him enrolled for tennis,” begins mother Sapna. 

“He was actually a swimmer. But he always liked watching kids play tennis. So Shyam (Mohan) sir who spotted Kriish, requested us to make the switch before helping us begin the tennis journey,” reminisces Sapna.  

Kriish’s interest in the sport soon made him one of the country’s budding junior stars also leading him to the junior Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2025. 

Now, a regular trainee at the Harsha Lingappa Tennis Academy here, he is focussed on improving both as a player and person while being a student-athlete in the USA. All the skills and substance he is learning, hopefully, will help him better prepare for the demanding men’s professional tour in the future.