After three weeks of intense training at Nick Bolletieri’s Academy in Florida, Yuki Bhambri’s return to the Capital this time happens to be simply a 48-hour stopover as he prepares to take off for a tournament.

But that’s enough time to squeeze in a bit of practice anyway. “I had a hit this morning at Siri Fort, till it started raining,” said the 17-year-old on Tuesday, as he prepared the rest of the day at home.

“I’m going to play in tournaments starting from next week, I can’t stop training,” added the Delhi player, who will leave early on Wednesday for a Challenger in Uzbekistan, then return to New Delhi for a Futures before heading off to the big one — the US Open junior Slam.

This will be Yuki’s first Slam since his title at this year’s Australian Open — he missed the French Open due to injury and skipped Wimbledon to play in a couple of men’s circuit tournaments at home — and he’s looking forward to it.

“I’m going there as the No 1 and the Australian Open champion, everybody expects the title from me, and I’m hoping for nothing less myself, but it’s hard to take anything for granted. A lot of good players are there on the junior tour, and many more have improved over the last few months.”

Special attention
This particular training trip to the US has allowed Yuki to be given special attention by coaches at the Bolletieri facility, letting him work on and improve specific aspects of his game.

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