2024 is coming to an end and, as usual, the year-end celebrations are about to arrive. How pyrotechnic tennis can be displayed at ATP Next Gen Finals is the wish of every enthusiast ready to follow the competition which compares the best eight under-20 talents, with Jeddah acting as a splendid setting. On the day when the seventh edition of this particular tournament will be inaugurated (the second in Arabia), we continue to discover its players protagonists.
The latest to join the group was Joao Fonseca. Immediately before him is the protagonist of this profile who has very little in common with the predestination of the Brazilian athlete and with that which characterized most of the past winners of this event. The Story of Nishesh Basavareddy it is in fact one of those that shows how the journey to achieve success is marked by different trajectories that sometimes are not the canonical ones, the timing is not even there and the means available are not even worth talking about.
“I knew after the first round that if I had made the final, I would have been in. I was tense and tried to calm down, telling myself that I still had a couple of games to win before I got the wild card for Melbourne. After the semi-finals, it was a huge relief to finally get in. I’m really excited”. The semi-final in question is the one won by Basavareddy in the Champain Challenger. Not a banal match, a historic match for the American. The match won in Illinois makes it official qualification for the next Australian Openalso to the detriment of Ethan Quinnwhat a mockery of mockery, will beat him in the final of the same tournament. A Pyrrhic victory for Quinn given that the points collected as part of the “Wild Card Challenger 2025” are not enough and the Californian boy is going to Melbourne.
The statement we started with is not obvious, indeed it is very explanatory to convey the tension of a result that the closer it seems, the greater the fear that something could push it away. The concern is dictated by the awareness that Basavareddy’s journey, despite only being 19 years old, starts from afar and with some critical issues of no small importance. Let’s take a step back.
The aforementioned California was the birthplace of Nishesh on May 2, 2005, and his first approaches to tennis came almost immediately, at the age of three, observing his older brothers dabbling in this discipline. The first turning point came when the parents, coming from Andhra Pradesh (a region of India with 50 million inhabitants) chose to move to the American state that most reminded them of home: Indiana. Here the little one Basavaverryat the age of 8, he finds the right habitat to cultivate his passion, which with the right guidance could become a profession, those “pros” that he will only achieve later.
The class of 2005 finds his mentor: Rajeev Ram. Being followed by a tennis player capable of reaching the number one ranking in the doubles specialty is an experience to treasure. Galeotto was the campus organized by Bryan Smithwhich gave rise to the “collaboration” between the two, with the student later underlining on several occasions how fundamental the teacher was in his growth process.
Something is blossoming, something is sprouting and that talent is starting to emerge in Basavareddy’s first performances. But what will be an athlete, done and finished, of six feet and seventy kilos begins to reveal structural difficulties, seasoned as if that weren’t enough with an abundant dose of bad luck. For those who believe in Hinduism, reincarnation could be an explanation but it has little that is comforting in this case: it seems like many different lives but with one perennial curse that enjoys destroying a body still under construction.
Basavareddy’s first encounter with the operating room was when, at just 11 years old, his kneecap cracked resulting in cartilage problems that kept him out of action for nine months. The physical integrity that allows him to grow as a tennis player lasts just two years, then bad luck comes back, doubling the load. This time they are I was off for 15 months, almost a year and a half, due to a torn meniscus. A physical and psychological blow that would have knocked down even an elephant, with its dreams ready to vanish from the drawer.
Here is the watershed between the understandable surrender to fate and the extraordinary rebellion against it. Why Nishesh Basavareddy it has something special. He understands that lessons can still be learned from adversity, so he puts himself there and with crutches in tow he begins to be a student of the gamebefore becoming one on the path that will also take him to university.
“I wasn’t able to play but I was able to find alternative ways to improve at that time. I studied professional tennis and went to junior tournaments with my brother to continue to stay in the environment. I watched many tennis matches, learning many things. I feel that one of my qualities is to analyze the game on the court and evaluate my opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, and how to exploit them. I believe this skill was born over the years of watching a lot of tennis and observing the various strategies and schemes of different players facing different opponents. It’s a quality I developed when I was injured”.
Deciphering the opponent’s game, an unaware SWAT Analysis which will lead him to choose “Data Science” at university, translated data analysis strategy. Nothing left to chance, following the example of Novak, among others DjokovicAmerica’s main point of reference. He didn’t have a poster of it in his bedroom, but by his own admission, he had the Serbian photo as Whatsapp image: “I put it on a couple of years ago and I don’t think I’ve ever changed it. I have always loved his game, his technique; his mental strength and attitude.”
In addition to the troubled right knee, Basavareddy he suffers from myopia which forces him to play with glassesso as not to miss anything. It’s funny to think that his idol doesn’t have a great feeling with this particular circle of tennis players: two of the nine athletes who beat him at his beloved Australian Open are Denis Istomin e Hyeon Chung: both wear glasses. Just like DjokovicNishesh also loves Italian culture. There is a great piece of Italy, in fact, in the parable of this boy, with Milan which turned the spotlight on his career. In 2022 he was the winner of the Bonfiglio Trophy, the Internazionali di Italia Juniores, played at TC Bonacossa where against all odds he beat the most popular Paraguayan Daniel at the time Vallejonumber one seed of the event.
A 6-2 4-6 6-3 which allowed him to enter his name in a prestigious roll of honor which includes the names of three other compatriots like Luke JensenIvan Baron and especially Jim Courier. Being paired with a four-time Slam champion seems to be for Basavareddy the first sign that perhaps the stars can also align in his favor. Noteworthy results that made him open the doors of the university, with the prestigious Stanford University ready to bet on the boy by giving him a scholarship. “Anytime you can get that kind of support, financially, knowing that people are supporting you is huge.”.
Having this kind of guarantee is the green light to explode definitively. Basavareddy starts 2024 at position number 457a less than noble placement destined to be retouched. Nishesh plays tournaments exclusively in North America, his performance is intermittent with great results but also premature exits. The match that blows the cap on his season is the third round of qualifying for the US Open against Hamad Medjedovicthe winner of the latest Next Gen. The Newport Beach native goes down, fights, drags it to third but loses, failing to enter the main draw. It doesn’t matter, Nishesh will say at the end of the match that he had fun and that it was part of his maturation.
It is a fundamental crossroads. At that point in Basavareddy something clicks, a click that allows him to stock up on results. A semi-final and Columbus, finale in Charleston beating opponents like JJ Wolf e Cristopher Eubanksmasterpiece a Tiburon where he bullies Eliot in the final splash with a double 6-1, finale a Charlottesville, semi-final persa a Knoxville, finale in Champain lost to Quinn which we have already talked about and last but not least comes the second success in Mexican salsa in Puerto Vallartathe first outside the US and Canadian borders.
Mexico allows him to get the pass to Jeddah at the last minute and go and join his compatriots Alex Michelsen e Learner Tien. When the bar gets that high, there’s no longer time to be in limbo and such Basavareddyas imaginable, makes a choice: he renounces NCAA eligibility to launch himself fully into the professionals. Far from the nest that cradled him, the ugly duckling is ready to become a swan. He won’t shine in terms of power, but Nishesh holds the court well, covers spaces, is incisive with his forehand and has a pretty good two-handed backhand. Material that is not enough to raise his odds at the ATP Next Gen Finals, for the bookmakers he starts behind everyone as the bottom of the competition, but Nishesh Basavareddy it has every intention of being its Cinderella ready to amaze.
