INDIA BECAME THE LATEST COUNTRY to qualify a U16 and U14 representative at the 2015 BNP Paribas WTA Finals with Mahak Jain (U14) and Pranjala Yadlapalli (U16) booking their tickets to Singapore.
14-year-old Jain, India's U14 representative in Singapore last year, captured the Road to Wimbledon Finals at the All-England Club in August and as a result, earned a 2016 Junior Wimbledon wildcard. She represented India at the World Junior Tennis Finals, helping India place 10th in the final tournament. She represented Asia in a series of top-level U14 event around Europe and performed best among the Asian players.
In International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior touranaments, Jain won a Grade 4 singles tournament in Hyderabad, India, the first of her career. She also reached a Grade 5 singles final in Indore, India in January. She is the sixth-youngest player ranked in the ITF Top 500. She is currently ranked No.324 in the ITF rankings after finishing 2014 ranked No.1579.
Yadlapalli is having a great 2015, breaking the ITF Top 20 and played all 4 Junior Grand Slams this year. She swept the Asian Closed Junior Championships, a Grade B1 event and also captures a Grade 1 title in Thailand and a Grade 3 event in India this year. Yadlapalli has also began to play professional tournaments and recently advanced to her first quarterfinal at a $10,000 ITF event in Dehra Dun. There she routed the 8th seed, losing just three games in the second round. As India's top junior in the world, Yadlapalli hopes to repeat the success of Karman Kaur Thandi, who captured the U16 Future Stars title last year.
As for Thandi, she recently played the US Open Junior tournament, advancing to the round of 16 in singles. She won a Grade 1 event in Germany and last week, advanced to a Grade 1 semifinal in Canada. Her results this year have pushed her to a career-high ITF ranking of No.62. Professionally, she is ranked No.1046 in singles and No.948 in doubles. In May, she reached the semifinals of singles and was the runner-up in doubles at the $10,000 ITF event in Nashik, India.
The Future Stars program features competition for young girls across the Asia-Pacific region with a vision to promote high-level athlete development, health, fitness and empowerment of women through tennis. Eighteen markets in the Asia-Pacific were invited to take part in the 2015 WTA Future Stars program, hosting Under 14 and Under 16 qualifying events in the hopes of sending their best young players to Singapore. Continue to check wtafinals.com for more updates on the WTA Future Stars program.
The 2015 WTA Finals will be hosted at the Singapore Indoor Stadium from October 25-November 1.
This story was originally published on WTA's official page.