Calcutta: Yaroslava Shvedova. The name wouldn’t have rung a bell with most a year back. Not so any more. Not since the unseeded Shvedova won the Bangalore Open title in February this year, decimating the seventh seed Tamarine Tanasugarn, the second seed Sania Mirza and the top-seeded Mara Santaneglo on the way. The win catapulted her from No. 143 to 78, her first breakthrough into the top 100.

On her second visit to the country, Shvedova still looks back with a lot of fondness on that quarter final match in which she defeated Sania. “It was a tough three-setter. Sania was ranked way higher than me, which is why all the pressure was on her. Plus the pressure of playing on her homeland. I’m still so proud for having been able to defeat the India queen in India,” smiles Shvedova.The 20-year-old Russian has however failed to live up to that promise. She ascribes that to injuries she sustained while practising in Spain. Now she is better and has set herself a target of reaching the top 50, hopefully by the end of this year.

There are four Russian women in the top 10 now. Russia have also just won the Fed Cup, defeating Italy. All this makes Shvedova very proud and she looks forward to being in the Fed Cup team one day very soon.