January 2009 was perhaps the sweetest month for Indian tennis in this decade. Soon after Somdev Devvarman’s exploits in the Chennai Open, a spunky teenaged claimed the Australian Junior Open — only the third Indian after the iconic Ramanathan Krishnan, his son Ramesh, and Leander Paes, to snap a junior Grand Slam title.
Seeded first, Yuki dropped only one set in the tournament, which he won by walloping German Alezandros-Ferdinandos Georgoudas in 57 minutes in the final, thus becoming the youngest Indian to win a junior Grand Slam at the age of 16. He lost only two junior singles matches this year and became the top-ranked junior in February.
He is currently ranked 20, but that doesn’t indicate his patchiness but rather his focus on the men’s circuit. Now 17, he competed in the Sony Ericsson Open and lost to then 68th-ranked Argentine Diego Junqueira in the first round. He followed it up with an ITF Futures win Delhi, thus becoming the youngest Indian to snare a Futures title. He won four more Futures titles in India, and duly got his call-up for the Davis Cup. The first time he declined, as he had to prepare for the Sony Ericsson Open. But later this year, he made his Davis Cup debut against South Africa and beat better-ranked Izak van der Merwe, fighting back after conceding the first set. Shuttling between the acclaimed Nick Bolletieri Tennis Academy in Florida and New Delhi, where Aditya Sachdeva coaches him, the six-footer has already snapped his place in next year’s Australian Open qualifying draw. He plans to participate in more professional tours next year, starting off with the Chennai Open.