Ayush Bhandari '27 Recruiting Profile

Ayush, my name and my brand of tennis. 

Living in Kenya has kept me grounded, respectful of coaches, tennis athletes and the tennis community, appreciative of what tennis can give me. Being from a place with limited tennis facilities I am adaptable to any coach, any surface and any state of court.  I love learning new ways to improve my game and how to adapt old techniques and learn new technical skills. I realise that there is so much to learn to become a top college tennis athlete and I am locked in for this 

I started playing tennis in Nairobi at the age of 10 and was quickly pushed into an elite group by the Kenya team for trials and eventual selection high performance category. I have gone on to be seed 1 in the under 12 age; under 14 age and now in the under 16 age group in Kenya. I have represented Kenya numerous times and received an ITF Touring Team East Africa Call Up. At under 14 level I was ranked a career high of 16 in Confederation of Africa Tennis (CAT) and participated in the prestigious Africa Junior Championship (AJC). My ITF results have been improving over the last 18 months and with this increased confidence I am now able to compete with international players and improve my UTR and WTN.

I have been lucky enough to play competitions in many countries in Africa and also attend eye opening high performance tennis camps in the US and in Serbia. I would love to play tennis regularly with strong opponents who force me to improve my game.

I spend most of my time outside school learning from my coaches, and watching on You Tube videos, social media and from older players I meet. I am an intense player giving all my energy for every training session or in matches. My strengths are my competitive nature, athletic ability, tennis consistency and an attacking style of play.

Tennis is my world, but outside tennis I attend full time school in Kenya and have achieved a high GPA of 3.9 and am studying my first AP. I understand the importance of academics and balance of education with my 5 days a week tennis program and fit my tennis schedule around free lessons or after school. I also respect the discipline required for college tennis and time management and catching up school work from an early age. 

I would be thrilled to join a competitive tennis school in 2027 and bring my skills and my hunger for more. I can promise you that.

I have recently uploaded a video taken for the finals for the ITF/CAT EAST AFRICAN ZONAL UNDER 16 FINAL, it shows me winning in 3 sets against a higher UTR player.