Well, Radhika Tulpule has all these qualities. The gifted girl has a cool temperament, accepts challenges as it comes and is known for her mental fortitude -- a quality her coach, S Balachandran of the Batra Tennis Centre acknowledges. Says he, ``Her biggest asset is her mind for tennis which keeps her touring for weeks after weeks.''

His statement is justified by the fact that she has been busy playing for the sixth consecutive week. She is currently away at Ahmedabad (for the 4th Zonal-leg conducted by the AITA), after taking part in three tournaments at Mumbai, of which two were played simultaneously -- the Mumbai Hard court, and the State ranking meet, then a State ranking tourney in Pune, which preceded her tour to Japan (Hiroshima) for the NEC World Youth Cup.

Radhika's drive to achieve, has yielded rich dividends. At the age of 16, Radhika has quite efficiently proved her mettle on the National scene. She maintained her monopoly in the under-16 section in the country by holding the top rank for the past two years which was the same story in the under-14 section.

And as expected, the 12th standard student of BMCC, in her last year of U-16 group, began her campaign in the higher level on a promising note by reaching up to the finals in the recently-held Mumbai hard court All-Indian ranking championship at Shivaji Park Gymkhana.

Being unseeded, Radhika had a creditable march in the Rs one lakh tourney, quelling the challenge of two higher seeded players -- No.2 Janaki Krishnamoorthy (semis) and No.3 Aparna Srinivasan (quarters) -- before going down to the top seed and the national No. 1 Uzma Khan (7-5, 6-3) in the title fight. No mean achievement this.

Hers is a case of someone who hails from a family steeped in tennis culture, where the sport runs in the blood of her father Anand Tulpule, mother and brother. And not surprisingly, Radhika took up tennis as a nine-year-old girl at Deccan Gymkhana for the first time.

After starting off with Prof. Kamat, Radhika showed results in a very short period as she annexed the under-10 title in the State ranking tourney in 1992, life's first crown. Two years later, she was observed by the State tennis body, MSLTA for advance coaching scheme under Sanjay Kamat and S P Gosavi at Deccan Gymkhana and then by former Davis Cupper Nandan Bal for the Batra Tennis Centre in 1995. Since then, Radhika has earned a name on the national and international level, winning 60-odd titles (including eight international titles).

But there are `defeats' one has to face as well. With Radhika stepping in the higher-level competition, there will be more disappointments and few surprise victories.

However, as her coach Balu puts it: ``One has a chance to improve only when you taste defeat. We are working on her speed on court and trying to put aggressiveness in her ground strokes,'' said Balu adding ``If she manages to pick up these finer aspects, she has a bright future ahead.''

Certainly, with the way Radhika has shown the inclination towards this sport, her coach as well as parents are sure of her, overcoming all hurdles.