<p>Bengaluru: Whether it is outside or within the confines of a tennis court, Vaishnavi Adkar prefers to live in her own bubble. For the mellow 21-year-old Pune girl, it is a self-created protective shell where she constantly introspects, analyses, learns and unlearns about her sport and life in general. </p>.<p>Locked-in in that safe space while completely committing herself to the process helped Vaishnavi achieve her career best result last week at the KPB Trust ITF Women’s Open W100 here at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium. Overcoming three higher-ranked opponents - two in the top-150 and one in the top-250 - en route to her maiden W100 final, Vaishnavi's resilience over five tough days saw her ranking jump from 690 in the world to 466 in the latest WTA list released on Monday.</p>.<p>"For Vaishnavi, the belief that she can beat these players, will be a game-changer going forward," coach Balachandran Manikkath, who trains the youngster at the Rohan Bopanna Tennis Academy (RBTA), tells <em>DH</em>.</p>.<p>"She moved more than 200 spots in the ranking which is not common. With higher ranking, we can now target tournaments also at higher level. After this week, it's clear Vaishnavi can beat players in the top-200. Now, she has to be competing against players of that level to get familiar with the physical and mental demands to stay competitive," analyses Manikkath when asked about the impact a successful week such as the one in Bengaluru does to upcoming players on the Tour. </p>.<p>Prior to the W100 here, Vaishnavi's best run on the ITF women's circuit came in the W15 Ahmedabad (winner, 2024), W15 Nakhon Si Thammarat (runner-up, 2024), W15 Tashkent (runner-up, 2025) and W35 Solapur (losing semifinalist). Following an injury-marred 2025, the start to the new season this year was anything but smooth as Vaishnavi lost two close opening round matches at the WTA Mumbai 125 and ITF W75 in Pune. </p>.<p>Shifting to RBTA two months ago, however, has brought in a positive change as there are early signs of improvement, especially her serves. But coach Manikkath credits Vaishnavi's temperament and eagerness to learn as her best qualities both as a player and person. </p>.<p>"She is smart, intelligent and has this quiet confidence. As a player, she is very open to new ideas and willing to try them out. She doesn't hesitate to try whatever new ideas shared with her in a match," points the senior coach.</p>.<p>For someone who calls herself 'an introvert' despite growing up in a joint family in Pune - where she picked up the racquet aged six because of her tennis-loving mother who is a big admirer of Steffi Graf - all the attention and love pouring in over the last week have been overwhelming.</p>.<p>But what stood out, in spite of the new terrain, was the maturity with which she handled both the big victories and the crushing loss in the final, where she went down 0-6, 1-6 to eventual champion Hanne Vandewinkel of Belgium (ranked 124).</p>.<p>"It was tough to process all of it. All the attention, the headlines and everything has been quite overwhelming. But, yeah, I just have to think of it as a beginning of umm... an unexplored path. This is just the beginning. </p>.<p>"Yeah, this is just a part of playing the sport. So, the attention will always be there. So, I just have to learn how to deal with it and not let it affect me in any way," she reminds herself similar to how she reminded herself to go for the shots freely at the end of every point the whole of last week.</p>
<p>Bengaluru: Whether it is outside or within the confines of a tennis court, Vaishnavi Adkar prefers to live in her own bubble. For the mellow 21-year-old Pune girl, it is a self-created protective shell where she constantly introspects, analyses, learns and unlearns about her sport and life in general. </p>.<p>Locked-in in that safe space while completely committing herself to the process helped Vaishnavi achieve her career best result last week at the KPB Trust ITF Women’s Open W100 here at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium. Overcoming three higher-ranked opponents - two in the top-150 and one in the top-250 - en route to her maiden W100 final, Vaishnavi's resilience over five tough days saw her ranking jump from 690 in the world to 466 in the latest WTA list released on Monday.</p>.<p>"For Vaishnavi, the belief that she can beat these players, will be a game-changer going forward," coach Balachandran Manikkath, who trains the youngster at the Rohan Bopanna Tennis Academy (RBTA), tells <em>DH</em>.</p>.<p>"She moved more than 200 spots in the ranking which is not common. With higher ranking, we can now target tournaments also at higher level. After this week, it's clear Vaishnavi can beat players in the top-200. Now, she has to be competing against players of that level to get familiar with the physical and mental demands to stay competitive," analyses Manikkath when asked about the impact a successful week such as the one in Bengaluru does to upcoming players on the Tour. </p>.<p>Prior to the W100 here, Vaishnavi's best run on the ITF women's circuit came in the W15 Ahmedabad (winner, 2024), W15 Nakhon Si Thammarat (runner-up, 2024), W15 Tashkent (runner-up, 2025) and W35 Solapur (losing semifinalist). Following an injury-marred 2025, the start to the new season this year was anything but smooth as Vaishnavi lost two close opening round matches at the WTA Mumbai 125 and ITF W75 in Pune. </p>.<p>Shifting to RBTA two months ago, however, has brought in a positive change as there are early signs of improvement, especially her serves. But coach Manikkath credits Vaishnavi's temperament and eagerness to learn as her best qualities both as a player and person. </p>.<p>"She is smart, intelligent and has this quiet confidence. As a player, she is very open to new ideas and willing to try them out. She doesn't hesitate to try whatever new ideas shared with her in a match," points the senior coach.</p>.<p>For someone who calls herself 'an introvert' despite growing up in a joint family in Pune - where she picked up the racquet aged six because of her tennis-loving mother who is a big admirer of Steffi Graf - all the attention and love pouring in over the last week have been overwhelming.</p>.<p>But what stood out, in spite of the new terrain, was the maturity with which she handled both the big victories and the crushing loss in the final, where she went down 0-6, 1-6 to eventual champion Hanne Vandewinkel of Belgium (ranked 124).</p>.<p>"It was tough to process all of it. All the attention, the headlines and everything has been quite overwhelming. But, yeah, I just have to think of it as a beginning of umm... an unexplored path. This is just the beginning. </p>.<p>"Yeah, this is just a part of playing the sport. So, the attention will always be there. So, I just have to learn how to deal with it and not let it affect me in any way," she reminds herself similar to how she reminded herself to go for the shots freely at the end of every point the whole of last week.</p>