Pune’s Manas Dhamne, the 13-year-old World No. 1 in U-14 Universal Tennis Rankings

After participating in three recent International Tennis Federation Junior Tours, including the recent one held in Kathmandu earlier in February, Dhamne is targeting his next goal — to be among the top 100 in ITF Juniors rankings.

Manas holds 78 trophies and a couple of medals. Some of the 13-year-old’s notable achievements are the U-12 singles title in Eddie Herr International Junior Championship 2019 win, the Orange Bowl International Championship 2019 third place trophy, a bronze medal from the Qatar Asian Junior Team Cup U-14 held in Miami USA and a medal from the Pre Quarter Singles U-14 Les-Petits. He was also the U12 National Champion in 2018, Singles winner in U-14 Les-Petits as Asian playoffs at Bali, Indonesia in 2019, winner in ITF Asian Under 12 finals at Kazakhstan in 2019 and ITF Asian Under 12 South East Gold Medal for India in both singles and doubles at Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2019.

While talking about his upcoming tours, Manas says, “I am planning to be part of the ITF to be held in Chandigarh in March. As far as my academics go, I have had tremendous support from my school, Bishops School. My school faculty has made arrangements to conduct my examinations if I missed any. Apart from that, I have my family to support me through my tournaments. My parents travelled with me for all my tournaments while my elder sister eased my academics whichever way she could.”

Ravindra Pandey, founder RPTA Tennis Academy and head coach at Solaris Sports, said, “Manas has been with me since he was five. He is disciplined, sincere and hardworking towards tennis. He is sharp and is able to make quick judgements when it comes to recognizing mistakes in his opponents. Although he is 13, mentally he is very mature and strong. I am proud as Eddie Herr is a tournament that has been won by Grand Slam winners and Manas has the potential to do the same.”