Ankita Raina Height, Age, Boyfriend, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ankita Raina

• Ankita Raina is a professional Indian tennis player. In the 2016 South Asian Games, she won gold medals in the women’s singles and mixed doubles events. In April 2018, she became the fifth Indian tennis player who represented India while entering the top 200 singles ranking for the first time. While playing tennis at the ITF Circuit (International Tennis Federation circuit), she won 11 singles and 18 doubles titles. In 2021, Raina was selected to represent India in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that were earlier postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  

  Ankita won the gold medal in 2016 in singles in South Asian games

• At the 2018 Asian Games, Ankita Raina won a bronze medal in women’s singles. After winning this event, she became only the second Indian woman to represent India and win a WTA-level title in singles after Sania Mirza. In the same series, she won one WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) title and one WTA 125k title, both in doubles.
  

  Ankita Raina while winning the WTA 125k title in doubles

• In 2007, the Under-14 Asian Tennis Series presented Ankita with a big turning point in her career. Under the guidelines of the continental tournament announced in the 2007 series, she played certain tournaments in India and the rest of the international tournaments within Asia.

• After winning the Under-14 Asian Tennis Series, Ankita got selected among the top eight tennis players in Asia and was invited to play at Melbourne Park, the venue of the Australian Open. In the Australian Open, she played the tennis finals and defeated a South Korean girl, and due to this victory, Ankita earned the number two position in Asia.

• According to Ankita, after winning the Australian Open in 2007, no one accompanied her when she participated in several other tournaments held outside India. Her father accompanied her to Jordan and Syria, her initial International tournaments. Thereafter, at the age of 13, Ankita went alone to Sri Lanka, where she participated in a tournament. In an interview, Ankita’s mother said,
  

  We thought Sri Lanka will be a safe option to start. We were initially very worried, her kit back was huge and heavy but she managed it all on her own.”

• In 2009, Ankita Raina played her first professional tennis match at a local ITF tournament in Mumbai. With the limited victories, she continued to play the local ITF events in 2010.

• In 2011, Ankita won the US Open championship by defeating her opponent and World No. 4 tennis player, Samantha Stosur. On winning this event, Anika said in an interview,
  

  I started crying. I had a flashback of everything that I had gone through all these years. On the third match point that I won, I just told myself ‘believe, it is now or never, and grab the opportunity.”

• In 2011, Ankita won three ITF circuit finals in doubles seasons with a renowned Indian tennis player, Aishwarya Agrawal. In New Delhi, Ankita won her first singles in 2012. Around the same year, she won three more in doubles. Later, for a few years, Ankita gave mediocre performances on the ITF Circuit.

• In 2017, in the Mumbai Open, Raina won two quarterfinal matches of her career, which proved a breakthrough in her tennis career. After this win, she attained the 181st world ranking in April 2018 on winning a $25k title. This world ranking brought Ankita into the elite group of Indian women tennis players including Nirupama Sanjeev, Sania Mirza, Shikha Uberoi, and Sunitha Rao.

• In August 2018, in the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, Ankita won the bronze medal in a singles event. At these Asian games, Ankita Raina and Sania Mirza were the only players who represented India in tennis and won singles. At the end of this year, in the 2018 OEC Taipei WTA Challenger, Ankita won the doubles title with another Indian tennis player named Karman Kaur Thandi.
  

  Ankita while receiving a 2 lakh rupees cheque after winning bronze in the 2018 Olympics

• In 2019, Ankita Raina won the ITF W25 title in Singapore over Arantxa Rus in the finals. However, Ankita lost the 2019 Australian Open in the same year.

• In 2019, Ankita won Women’s tennis events over Sabine Lisicki, former Wimbledon finalist, at the ITF Surbiton Trophy in London. Around the same year, Ankita lost the 2019 French Open to young American tennis player Coco Gauff. Later this year, Raina lost both the 2019 Wimbledon Championships and the 2019 US Open. In October 2019, Raina, along with her partner, Rosalie van der Hoek, reached the finals after entering the top 150 doubles rankings in tennis at the 2019 Suzhou Ladies Open.

• In December 2019, Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Vijay Rupani Sir and Honourable Sports Minister of Gujarat, Shri Ishwarsinh Patel felicitated the trophies to the athletes of Gujarat including Ankita Raina at the closing ceremony of Khel Maha Kumbh. Apparently, these players were honoured for their outstanding performances in their field of sports.
  

  Ankita Raina while receiving the honour from the Cheif Minister of Gujarat in 2019

• In 2020, at the Australian Open, Ankita’s health was not well due to the Australian bushfires due to which she gave a disappointing result in some matches. However, at the end of 2020, in doubles, along with Bibiane Schoofs, Ankita won two back to back titles in Nonthaburi, Thailand.
  

  Ankita while posing with the trophy after winning back to back titles in Nonthaburi, Thailand

• She played another semifinal of the 2020 Thailand Open along with Rosalie which was Ankita’s first WTA Tour. This victory placed her in the 119th world ranking. In the same year, Ankita won two more singles, one in Nonthaburi, Thailand and the other in Jodhpur, India.
  

  Ankita while playing at ITF Circuit in Thailand

• In April 2020, Ankita Raina, along with Sania Mirza, Rutuja Bhosale, Riya Bhatia and Sowjanya Bavisetti, made their entries in the Fed Cup World Group 2 playoffs for the first time in history and won doubles. However, during the FedCup, Raina lost the match by 6-1 against China’s top player Wang Qiang in singles.
  

  Ankita Raina with Sania Mirza at FedCup 2020

• In 2020, she lost the French Open to Kurumi Nara. In December 2020, at the Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge, Ankita, alongside Ekaterine Gorgodze, won the ITF doubles title held in Dubai. This victory is considered the biggest victory in her career of doubles, and she earned the 117th world ranking after this tournament.
  

  Ankita among Indian women’s FedCup Team 2020

• In April 2020, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with all Indian athletes including Ankita Raina, and he discussed the challenges faced by the athletes amid the COVID-19 lockdown in India.
  

  Ankita Raina while interacting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid the covid-19 lockdown

• Since 2020, Ankita has been coached and trained by Jayant Kadhe. According to her coach, Ankita Raina’s preferred surfaces to play a tennis match are grass and hard court. These surfaces are mostly suitable for her gaming style. Her weakest surface to play tennis matches is clay surface. ^[4]The Times of India In an interview, Ankita’s coach, Jayant Kadhe said,
  

  Ankita’s game is more suited to hard and grass courts than clay. She has an attacking game and is not sit back on the baseline and engage in rallies.”

  

  Ankita with her coach Jayant Kadhe

• In 2021, at the Australian Open, Ankita, along with Mihaela Buzarnescu, lost the final round to Olga Danilović. After playing this season, Ankita Raina became the fourth player in tennis who represented India in the main draw of a Grand Slam after Nirupama Sanjeev, Nirupama Mankad and Sania Mirza.

• At the 2021 Phillip Island Trophy, Ankita won her first WTA singles match of her career. In this match, she defeated Elisabetta Cocciaretto from Italy by the score of 5–7, 6–1, 6–2. In the same season, Ankita lost another singles match to Kimberly Birrell of Australia.

• In 2021, in doubles of Phillip Island Trophy, Raina, along with Kamilla Rakhimova, defeated the Russian pairing of Anastasia Potapova and Anna Blinkova and won her first WTA final doubles. With this victory, Ankita became the second Indian female after Sania Mirza to win the WTA title in doubles following which Ankita was placed on the 94th world rank in doubles and at the third position in India after Sania Mirza and Shikha Uberoi.

• In 2021, at the Abierto Zapopan tournaments, Raina won the match over the former World No.5, Sara Errani. Around the same time, Raina lost the second round of the match at the French Open in singles, and she also lost the first round of the doubles. In early 2021, at the Nottingham Open and Nottingham Trophy, Raina reached the semifinals of the tournaments. During this season, Ankita Raina lost the singles match to Varvara Lepchenko of America at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships. In the same championship, in doubles, Raina lost in the first round of doubles along with her pair Lauren Davis.

• Ankita Raina belongs to a Kashmiri Pandit family. She was born in Gujarat. She has a Kashmiri descent. Her hometown is in Pinglish Tral in Pulwama district, Kashmir. In the early 1990s, Ankita’s family left Kashmir due to the insurgency and emigration of Kashmiri Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir. Ankita can speak Hindi, Gujarati, Kashmiri and English fluently. She studied at Brihan Maharashtra for a short span. ^[5]JK News Today
  

  Childhood Picture of Ankita Raina

• In her childhood, Ankita’s elder brother, Ankur, used to play tennis at a club near to their home. She used to watch Ankur playing tennis from their house’s window when she was four years old. Her mother was a big sports fan, and she was also an athlete at her college level. Ankita used to accompany her brother to the tennis club when she was very little and started picking up the tennis racket since then. While giving this interview, she said,
  

  I was the height of the racket.”

  

  Ankita Raina while playing tennis at a very early age

• Later, Ankita participated in the Future Kids – a talent hunt conducted by the All India Tennis Association; she represented Gujarat at MSLTA in Mumbai and defeated Surabhi Varma, the No. 1 player of Maharashtra at that time. In an interview with a media house, Ankita’s mother talked about this and said,
  

  They were not willing to let her participate at first since she was only eight and it was Under-10. But I insisted because there was no minimum age limit and we wanted her to play. Ankita then went on to beat the then Maharashtra No 1 Surabhi Varma, who was 14 years at the time, causing a huge upset.”

• In school, during the summer vacations, Ankita and his brother, Ankur, played at the PYC Gymkhana in Pune, Maharashtra, as they have their relatives there. At PYC Gymkhana Ankita and Ankur noticed that several Gujarati tennis players were practising and improving their tennis skills under coach Hemant Bendre. Soon, Ankita started living with her maternal grandmother in Mumbai and began her tennis coaching under coach Hemant Bendre.

• Reportedly, Ankita had to skip school for tournaments. She gave her tenth board exam not as a regular student but as a private candidate. In twelfth even playing in an ITF tournament, she secured 69%.  She played ITF tournament between her two board papers.
  

  With Hemant Bendre, Ankita’s coach at the PYC Gymkhana in Pune

• Ankita often speaks on motivational programmes as a guest sportsperson. She frequently speaks about the future of sports in India.
  

  Ankita on an invitation poster of a motivational event on Instagram

• Ankita Raina is an animal lover, and she often posts pictures of her pet dog on her social media account.
  

  Ankita with her pet dog

• Ankita Raina is a steady baseliner who has counterpunching abilities and depends on her speed to counter-attack her opponents while playing on the tennis ground. ^[6]Sportskeeda

• Various renowned sports magazines and tabloids often feature Ankita Raina on their cover page as a successful Indian women tennis player.
  

  Ankita Raina on the cover page of a sports magazine

• Ankita Raina is a yoga enthusiast, and she actively promotes yoga through her various posts on social media.
  

  Ankita while doing Yoga

• As a sports person, Ankita Raina is a fitness enthusiast. She often posts her videos on her social media account while gymming.
  

  Ankita Raina while gymming

• In an interview, Ankita was asked about her “healthy diet” mantra and her diet regime. She then replied that during the tournaments she maintain a vegetarian diet, and she further added that an animal diet was also a part of her balanced diet. ^[7]Physio Times She explained,
  

  During tournaments I try maintaining a vegetarian diet which keeps me light during the matches. However, during training season as part of my protein intake I take animal protein to maintain the diet balance.”

• According to Ankita, the best thing about playing tennis matches was to compete with world-class players and get a chance to travel and interact with various cultures all around the world. In an interview, she said,
  

  To compete with world-class professional players at the world level. Handling high-pressure situations. Getting a chance to travel, interact and imbibe different world cultures.”

  She further added the important requisites for being a good tennis player. She narrated,

  Apart from core tennis skills, physical and mental skills play an important role in the performance of a tennis player. Some other additional qualities would be- Perseverance, Handling Pressure, Adapting to new situations and Playing outside the comfort zone.”

  She further added the similarities and differences between badminton and tennis racquets. She stated,

  Similarities between Tennis & Badminton: Both sports need mental strength, physical strength and proper technique. Difference between Tennis & Badminton: The movement technique of both the sport is different. Badminton needs more explosive leg strength than Tennis and the energy systems used for Badminton is a little different from Tennis.”

• In an interview, Ankita Raina said that she admired Sania Mirza since childhood. She further added that she grew up watching her matches at Wimbledon. She exclaimed,
  

  She has been an inspiration for me. Growing up I used to watch her, watch her matches at Wimbledon. It’s great to be here with her in the same tournament. I feel honoured. We’ve played Fed Cup (now Billie Jean King Cup) matches over the years together.”