Maaya Rajeshwaran, 17, reaches the Chennai Open quarter-finals, the first Indian woman in a WTA last eight since Sania Mirza in 2012

Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi, a 17-year-old wildcard from Coimbatore, beat Polish qualifier Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3 at the SDAT Tennis Stadium in Chennai on Wednesday, 4 November, and booked a quarter-final place at the Chennai Open. Sania Mirza, at Pattaya in February 2012, was the most recent Indian woman to get that far in a singles draw on the WTA Tour.

The gap in rankings made the result stand out. Maaya came into the WTA 250 event at No. 669 in the world. Falkowska, at No. 277, had already knocked out Linda Fruhvirtova, who won the Chennai title in 2022.

A first set turned around from 2-4

Serve was broken repeatedly in the early games of the opener, and Maaya slipped to 2-4. She then reeled off four games in a row and closed the set 6-4 with a volley at the net. In the second set she went 2-0 up, was pegged back to 2-2 and pulled away again behind her serve, striking three aces in the set. She moved to 5-3 and won on her third match point.

The win came one round after her first victory in a WTA main draw. In the opening round she beat Poland’s Katarzyna Kawa, the eighth seed, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(5), after trailing 2-5 in the final set. After the Falkowska match, Maaya said entering as a wildcard had let her play without pressure, since she felt she had nothing to lose.

Robin Montgomery next

Maaya trains at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Spain. In October she came through qualifying to win her first W35 title in singles, at Lagos in Portugal. In Chennai she now meets Robin Montgomery of the United States, ranked 151, who beat Belgium’s Jeline Vandromme 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. A win would take Maaya into a WTA semi-final, a round no Indian woman has reached since Sania Mirza at Osaka in 2009.

There was a second Indian result on the same day. In the doubles, Vaishnavi Adkar and Rutuja Bhosale beat fourth seeds Madeleine Brooks and Amelia Rajecki of Britain 6-4, 6-4. The tournament runs until Sunday, 8 November.