Ashwin Vijayaragavan
Ashwin built Adelaide Rising Stars around a simple idea: juniors improve fastest when they train with players slightly better than them, under pressure, every week. Squads are capped and grouped by rating rather than age, so nobody hides at the back of the queue.
- Playing
- Former Indian Davis Cup squad member
- Ranking
- Career-high ATP singles ranking of 786 (2012)
- College
- NCAA singles ranking of 46, University of Texas
- Honours
- Tennis SA State League Player of the Year — 2021, 2022, 2023
- Accreditation
- Tennis Australia Certified Club Professional, including pickleball
- Education
- Master of Sports Management, Deakin University
- Coached
- Sahaja Yamalapalli — India's current No. 1, coached in her junior years in India
- Also runs
- Sister academy in Hyderabad, India
The long version
Starting out
Ashwin came to tennis at eleven, after the family moved from Doha back to India. Cricket was the obvious choice — it is the obvious choice for most kids there — and it stayed that way until he watched his brother play and decided he wanted that instead.
His first coach was Ilyas Ghouse, a former Indian national player, who pushed him hard from the start. It worked: by fourteen Ashwin was inside India's top five for his age group, and by sixteen he was playing the ITF junior circuit under coach Ganesh Raman, including the 2007 Australian Open juniors.
I wasn't the most naturally talented player in my age group. My work ethic was what stood out.
Texas and turning pro
A scholarship took him to the University of Texas, where he studied finance alongside a full college tennis schedule. He rose into the top fifty of the NCAA and was named Conference Player of the Year, then turned professional at twenty-one.
He is straightforward about what those years gave him: college tennis taught him independence at least as much as it taught him tennis.
At six, in Doha, I hit with Leander Paes. Fifteen years later I was alongside him in the Indian Davis Cup setup.
Davis Cup and coaching
The call-up to the Indian Davis Cup squad came in 2013. After years on an individual circuit, where a player travels alone and wins or loses alone, team tennis was the sharpest possible contrast — and the part of his playing career he still talks about first.
Injury, and the ordinary grind of the ITF tour, eventually turned him toward coaching. The academy is built on what that whole road actually required, rather than on a theory about how players improve.
Enjoy playing, and play as much as you can. Don't make becoming a champion the only purpose — the odds of reaching the very top are tiny, but the journey itself will teach you an enormous amount.
Rod Laver Arena
Ashwin has competed at the AO 1 Point Slam qualifying event on Rod Laver Arena — the court every junior in the country grows up watching.
It is the same reason the squads are built the way they are: the standard is set by someone who has stood on it.
Davis Cup
Ashwin came up through the Indian junior system and into the national Davis Cup squad, training and travelling with the team.
In pictures
Career so far
- 2013
Indian Davis Cup squad
Called into the national squad, training and travelling with the team after years on an individual circuit.
- Professional
Career-high ATP ranking of 786
Reached 786 in ATP singles in 2012, after turning professional at twenty-one.
- College
Top 50 NCAA and Conference Player of the Year
Rose into the top fifty of the NCAA at the University of Texas, where he studied finance alongside a full college tennis schedule.
- 2021, 2022, 2023
SA State League Player of the Year
Named South Australia's State League Player of the Year in three consecutive seasons.
- On Rod Laver Arena
South Australian State Championship, AO 1 Point Slam
Won the South Australian State Championship at the AO 1 Point Slam, which put him on Rod Laver Arena for a match against Marat Safin.
- Education
Master of Sports Management
Completed a Master of Sports Management at Deakin University.
- The academy
Founded Adelaide Rising Stars
Set up the academy at Tea Tree Gully Tennis Club, built around capped squads grouped by playing standard rather than age.
- Also runs
Sister academy in Hyderabad
Runs a second academy in India, giving players at both ends a training base when they travel.
The interview
NRI Affairs sat down with Ashwin about the road from the Indian junior circuit to a national squad, and what he took from it into coaching.
Worth twelve minutes if you want to know who is running your player's session.