French Open: For Aman Dahiya, a lucky break and a chance to shine

A little less than six months later on a drive from Belgium to Paris, the 17-year-old Dahiya afforded a grin with lady luck eventually smiling on him. A late call-up on Wednesday handed the junior world No. 94 Indian a spot in the French Open Junior Championships qualifying draw as one of the alternates. The Indian will face higher-ranked Turkish Togan Tokac in the first qualifying round on Thursday for his first Grand Slam experience on the clay-courts of Roland Garros.

“Just so happy to be here. It’s been a long journey of working hard towards this,” Dahiya said from Paris.

Dahiya was looking forward to arriving at his destination a lot earlier in the year, though.

The teen had made the cut for the qualifiers of the 2022 Australian Open junior event starting January 19, but the country’s strict vaccine mandate allowed only fully vaccinated participants unless exempted. The 17-year-old hadn’t been jabbed as India opened vaccination for his age group on January 3. Dahiya’s coaches at the Altevol Academy in Ahmedabad wrote emails to Tennis Australia in December explaining the situation and even sought entry with a single dose. After some back-and-forth, their request for exemption was declined. Barely days later, the unvaccinated Novak Djokovic announced he was flying to Melbourne on an exemption (that saga, however, ended with the world No. 1 getting deported).

“It was very disappointing for me. I had worked so hard for it, only to find out I couldn’t go to the Australian Open. But I talked to my coaches who kept me a little motivated. After a while, I realised that you have to keep learning from these experiences and obstacles. That’s tennis, that’s life,” Dahiya said.

Far from competing at Melbourne Park, Dahiya played a couple of ITF Grade 2 tournaments in January in Chandigarh and Kolkata, entering the final of the latter. The next month, he won a Grade 4 event in Kathmandu before moving to Europe to play three tournaments over the last couple of months.

Dhruv Sachdev, one of the academy’s coaches travelling with Dahiya to Europe, said they ensured the youngster did not rue the missed opportunity for too long. “We told him to just put in the work and let destiny decide the rest. It was bad luck that he couldn’t play in Australia, but luck finally turned on his side,” he said.

Staying put in Belgium after a tournament earlier this week, Dahiya—fifth on the alternates list for the qualifying draw—was anxiously awaiting a word from Roland Garros. It came on Wednesday night, and Dahiya and Sachdev wasted no time in reaching Paris by midnight.

Dahiya has done well in ITF tournaments in India and Asia, but hasn’t played in Europe in the 14-18 age group events before this year. Dahiya understands it’s a considerable step up in terms of level but is confident that the more he plays in that part of the world against stiffer opponents, the more he will develop. The Roland Grand sojourn is a key step of that process. “The French Open will be great experience for me. I want to learn from the other players here about how mentally and emotionally tough they are,” Dahiya said.