Tennis comes naturally to Turkish sensation Eraydin

The 18-year-old plays NECC ITF quarter-final today.

Playing tennis was non-negotiable for Basak Eraydin. Born in Ankara, the Turkish capital, the girl had a tennis racquet thrust into her hands at the tender age of two and a half. "Both my parents are tennis coaches. I am their only child and I really didn't have too much of a choice when it came to playing tennis. My father just got a small tennis racquet one day and told me to start hitting the ball," says Eraydin. Her early beginning definitely helped her game as seen at the NECC ITF tournament at Deccan Gymkhana where she has already caused two upsets.

Eraydin says though she didn't know too much about the game in the beginning, living in a house where tennis was spoken about almost round the clock helped.

She started enjoying it after winning a couple of tournaments in the junior category.

"We lived in Antalya and that is where my tennis really took off. I was doing pretty well and a couple of years ago, I moved to Istanbul to play tennis professionally," says the girl who is ranked at number three in Turkey. On Wednesday, Eraydin beat Georgia's Oksana Kalashnikova 6-7 (4) 7-5, 6-3.

The Georgian had won the doubles title at Royal Indian Open last month and seemed to be on course to book a quarter-final berth as she won the first set against Eraydin. But the Turkish rallied to win the second set, courtesy some powerful hitting from the baseline and moving the Georgian around the court frenetically.

"In the first game, I was just not hitting the ball right. However, after losing the first set, I told myself to just play my natural game and hit the ball instinctively. It worked well for me and I am looking to play my first quarter-final tomorrow," she says.

... contd.

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