For Bhuvana Kalva, athleticism came naturally. The 22-year-old picked up the tennis racket at the age of eight, and has been No. 1 in the under-14 and under-16 categories in India. She was also in the top 10 in women’s tennis in India, before she was injured and had to take a break. However, Bhuvana is now back with a bang.
After winning the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) tournament recently, she has been selected to represent Osmania University at the World University Championships that is set to take place next month. While four students were selected from India, Bhuvana is the only one from South India. “Two students are from Gujarat University and the other one is from University of Delhi. I am excited to represent Hyderabad,” says Bhuvana, who is pursuing her masters in Mass Communication at St Francis College for Women.
Talking about her training schedule, she shares, “My fitness training starts at 6 am and goes on till 7.30 am. I then play tennis from 8.30 am to 11 am. After a break, I play tennis again for two hours in the evening and go to the gym for an hour. The training is rigorous, so I take an off on Mondays.”
The youngster will be heading to Haryana on August 1, where she will be trained for the championship. She will then go to Chinese Taipei for the tournament. She has been training under Ilyas Goud and Syed Farooq Kamal. “I aim to make it to the top 100 internationally. After masters, I will play tennis full-time. In fact, my sister, Likhitha, has started playing too and I am helping her,” says Bhuvana, and adds, “My dad has been encouraging us to play tennis. We eventually got interested too.” So, what does she do when she gets some time off? “I hardly get free time. But when I do, I love to eat out and relax as much as I can,” she says.
