Category: Sports

An Indian-American cricket enthusiast has announced plans to build as many as eight cricket stadiums across the US at an estimated cost of $2.4 billion to professionalize the game in the country.

The eight proposed stadiums, each having a capacity of 26,000 people in New York, New Jersey, Washington DC, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Illinois and California, would create as many as 17,800 new jobs in the US, said Jignesh (Jay) Pandya, chairman of Global Sports Ventures.

Gujarat-born Pandya is a real estate developer in the US and had been travelling across the globe with his two sons to watch popular international cricket matches.

Pandya, chairman Global Sports Ventures, feels he can professionalize cricket in the United States by creating a league that allows athletes to compete at the highest level and allow fans to enjoy the game at  these world-class facilities.

These cricket stadiums, Pandya said, would be a part of “lifestyle centers” comprising high-rise residential complexes, shopping centers, entertainment centers and office complexes.

Pandya feels that Americans, are the biggest sports lovers in the world and sports economy in the US is around $87 billion. This leads him to be confident that there is “a great market and a readymade audience for cricket in the US”.

He hopes that this plan will fructify when the International Cricket Council (ICC) hosts any tournaments in line with its strategic framework for USA cricket, potentially hosting the ICC World Twenty20 in 2024.

Nikhil Kumar, an 8th grade student from Miami, Florida, has won the World Cadets Chess Championship held in Georgia, a former Soviet Republic, late last month. Kumar, a student at Ransom Everglades in Coconut Grove, Miami, defeated No. 1 Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa of India, who at 10 became the youngest person ever to claim the title of chess International Master. Kumar also defeated Andrew Hong, who is the No. 1 is ranked under-12 player in the U.S. “Becoming the world chess champion seemed like a dream just a few months ago but hard work made this dream become a reality,” Kumar told Local10.com after returning to Miami Oct. 28.

Kumar ranked 25th at the start of competition in Georgia. Coming as the underdog, he finished first in a field of 137 students from 36 countries.

“When I was at the podium and the national anthem was played, I felt that I represented the country and Team USA well,” Kumar who returned to school Nov. 2, said.
Besides chess, Kumar’s favorite pastime includes playing the violin, tennis and participating in Mathcounts at Ransom Everglades.

“We were thrilled to hear of Nikhil’s success in the chess world championships,” Rachel Rodriguez head of the middle school, said both students and teachers were happy to hear about Nikhil’s success. “He is talented and hard-working, and has represented Ransom Everglades with class and dignity. We are proud to welcome him back to our campus today,” Rodriguez was quoted as saying.

A former CIA official has said that Pakistan was “nearly placed” on the list of state sponsored terrorism during 1993 to 1994.  “At the start of the (Bill) Clinton administration, in 1993 and 1994, I was a special assistant to the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, on loan from CIA, deeply involved in an annual terrorism review which nearly resulted in Pakistan’s being placed on the formal list of state sponsors of terrorism,” Robert L Grenier, a former CIA official told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during a Congressional hearing on Pakistan.

Grenier said that over the past five decades, the US has been willing, episodically to overlook its concerns with aspects of Pakistani behaviour and to subordinate those concerns in the face of what have appeared, at the time, to be overriding national security priorities – only to revert to a more contentious relationship when those interests no longer pertained.

“Thus, in the 1980’s, the US was willing not only to overlook growing evidence of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program in deference to joint US-Pak support to the anti-Soviet Afghan Mujahiddin, but also to provide Pakistan with generous economic and military rewards in the bargain,” he said.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 attacks, needing a platform for operations in Afghanistan and a partner to intercept Al-Qaeda militants fleeing that country, the US was again willing to subordinate its broader concerns with Pakistani-based militancy in Kashmir and with Pakistan’s ambivalent attitude toward the Afghan Taliban, he said.

Pakistan has clung stubbornly to its own perceptions of national interest, and refused to compromise them even when it seemed irrational or self-defeating to US eyes, he said. He also said the same has happened in the context of nuclear weapons doctrine, in its assessment of the threat from India, or in its calculus regarding both foreign and domestic militant groups.

Pakistani adherence to its perceived interests, in fact, has persisted, irrespective of US-administered punishments or inducements, Greiner said. However, the former CIA station chief in Islamabad, warned the lawmakers against taking any punitive action or sanctions against Pakistan. In fact he encouraged that the US should help Pakistan maintain a large conventional armed forces.

“Pakistan’s conventional military forces will need to be maintained if we are to avoid quick recourse to nuclear weapons at a time when Kashmir remains a social and political tinderbox, and the threat of Indo-Pak war still hangs like an incubus across the region,” he said. “The US dares not turn its back on Pakistan as it seeks to protect its serious national security interests in South-Central Asia,” Grenier said.

Two teens of Indian origin shone at the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows, N.Y., defeating their opponents and moving forward in the rankings. Natasha Subhash, 15, won an exciting match in the US Open Juniors against 12th seed Katarina Zavatska of Ukraine, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, on Sept. 5. Pranjala Yadlapalli of India beat Wiktoria Kulik of Poland, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. She goes on into the round of 32.

Subhash came into the limelight last year when she got a Wild Card from the U.S. Tennis Association and became the youngest Indian-American to play a Grand Slam, American Bazaar reported. She earned three straight wins last year beating higher ranked players and moving up to the 2nd round which she lost due to an injured knee.

Subhash is currently the number one ranked player in the under-16 girls in the U.S. and in the top 60 in the world in singles and doubles. She lost the French Open and Italian Open qualifying rounds this year.

Born and brought up in the U.S., Subhash trains at the 4 Star Tennis Academy in Washington, D.C. Pranjala Yadlapalli, 17, is from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh and is the 2015 Asian Tennis champion. was selected to the International Tennis Federation Touring Team soon after in May 2015, competing in a series of junior tournaments in Europe. She is coached by Ilyas Ghouse at GVK Tennis Academy in Hyderabad, according to a Press Trust of India report.

Before meeting with Poland’s Kulik on Sept. 5, Yadlapalli qualified for the Junior main-draw with a decisive straight sets victory over American Kariann Pierre-Louis, 6-4, 6-4. In the first set the Indian was 2-4 down before winning the next four games and the set.

For someone born on June 19, 2000, Kanak Jha has done well to fit in with the older crowds. This year, 16-year-old Kanak Jha picked up the paddle as the youngest member of the United States’ Olympic team in Rio. He is the first American born in the 2000s to qualify for the Olympics. He’s also the youngest person in the history of the sport of table tennis to qualify for the Olympics.

His final win at the Olympic qualifier was the reason why U.S. table tennis gets to compete in the team event. While California-born, he trains in Sweden because the sport is more competitive and popular in Europe. He’s going into his junior year of high school, though he won’t be going into a “traditional secondary school environment,” NBC Olympics reports. He takes online classes.

Kanak, who had begun playing table tennis at age 5, didn’t start taking the sport more seriously until he was 9 or 10, when he stopped calling it “ping-pong” and started calling it table tennis. Kanak competed in both singles, and team competitions at the Olympics.

He believes age is just a number when it comes to his abilities. “I don’t think about it at all,” he tells NBC Olympics. “I’m just trying to prepare for the Olympics. In the end, it doesn’t really matter how old you are.”

He’s one of the 16-year-olds going to the Olympics for Team USA this year, including Laurie Hernandez, a gymnast. His 19-year-old sister, Prachi, is also talented at table tennis — she’s also a national team member.

“It’s definitely a very great experience,” Jha says. “I didn’t know the atmosphere would be as good as it was in this match.”

He knows what a VHS is and grew up watching a few video tapes. Before Pokémon took off on people’s iPhones, he remembers collecting stacks of the trading cards. His iPod includes classics by Michael Jackson and Queen. Jha is still a kid but he also holds the distinction of being the first U.S. Olympian born in 2000 to compete at the Summer Games. He competed in Thursday’s preliminary round of table tennis, losing 4–1 to 23-year-old Nima Alamian of Iran.

The 16-year-old isn’t quite finished yet—he’ll compete in the team event on Aug. 12—but he’s here to enjoy his first Olympics. He did a good job of doing just that on Friday night at the Opening Ceremony, which included selfies with the U.S. men’s basketball team, Michael Phelps, Jordan Burroughs and several other athletes that he gets to call teammates. At this point, his phone is packed with photos of these famous encounters, as he also snapped away at Olympic team processing, taking photos with members of the track team and gold-medalist fencer Mariel Zagunis.

The son to immigrant parents from India, Jha started playing at five years old and has never been a stranger to facing much older competition. When he was seven, he played someone 10 times his age but still came away with the victory over the 70-year-old, his father Arun recalls.

“I didn’t really have too many expectations going into that semifinals match and it was kind of a dream that I played so well,” Jha says. “It gave me a lot of confidence and I started to think about the Olympics more.”

In 2013, Jha had a very successful season, winning 27 of his 28 matches. That’s when he made his first trip out to Sweden to explore his options playing table tennis at an elite level.  “We had all two years planned out with the Olympics as the final moment of the goal and decided to give it a shot,” Arun says. “For Kanak to go into very formalized training with league matches, he would have to stay in Europe. The realization of the Olympics was in 2013.”

In table tennis, it’s common for American players to head over to Europe or Asia to train and dedicate most of their life to the game. So in 2015, at just 15 years old, Jha made the move to Hamlstad, Sweden, with his sister, Prachi. Table tennis remains Jha’s sole focus as he takes online classes and will enter his junior year of high school in the fall. When he’s not practicing, he’s your typical 16-year-old hanging out with friends, playing with his dog Shadow or watching Breaking Bad on Netflix—which he watched sometimes hours at a time. “I see these athletes and so many of them are gold medalists in their sport,” Jha told the media in late July. “It’s humbling to be around them. Many of them don’t know I’m 16.”

In a path-breaking initiative, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has approved the proposed two-match Twenty20 International series against the West Indies cricket team in Florida, United States of America later this month. The decision was taken during the board’s Working Committee meeting held in Mumbai. The two games will be played at the Central Broward Regional Park, Fort Lauderdale in Florida, USA on August 27 and 28 respectively.

The Indian cricket team, for the first time, will be playing an international match in the United States of America. It will take on reigning World T20 Champions West Indies in a two-match T20 International series in Florida’s Fort Lauderdale.  According to reports, the matches will start at 19:30 IST. BCCI president Anurag Thakur said, “As part of our continuous efforts to reach out to new markets and audiences, I am very happy to announce that Team India will play two T20Is against the current world champions West Indies in the United States.”

“This will be a great initiative in our continued efforts to develop cricket in the Americas (North and South America) a very important market,” said Whycliffe Dave Cameron,West Indies Cricket Board President.

India lead 1-0 in their four-test series against West Indies, and the Twenty20 matches will mark the first full member games in the United States in four years, when New Zealand played West Indies.

The Broward Stadium is the only ground in the United States that meets international cricket specifications, and organisers say they have invested about $1.4 million to bring it up to standard including tweaking the floodlights to point at the pitch and erecting big video screens.

The United States would be a big market to crack for cricket bosses. The Twenty20 format is likely to be the most appealing form of the game, in the face of traditional U.S. sports, thanks to explosive batting and a relatively short matches.

“This will be a great opportunity for the cricket fans in America to watch the two champion sides in action. This will be developed into an annual cricketing event in the United States,” BCCI president Anurag Thakur said in a statement. “This will be a great initiative in our continued efforts to develop cricket in the Americas, a very important market,” Whycliffe Cameron, president of West Indies Cricket Board, said.

Golfer Vijay Singh, who was Number 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for 32 weeks in 2004 and 2005, has accused PGA Tour officials of subjecting him to “absurd” and “unfair” treatment by ignoring the use of deer antler spray, a controversial performance-enhancing drug, by five other professional golfers.

In a memorandum filed with the New York State Supreme Court May 30 Singh, known as “The Big Fijian’, accused the organizers of the main professional golf tours in the U.S., of ignoring the use of that spray by the five golfers playing on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour, and then lying to the public by “characterizing Singh as a cheater who caught a break,” according to a report published last week in Golf .com and reported by other media outlets, including MSN, based on Golf.com report.

According to Singh, “discovery revealed” that five golfers, identified in the memorandum anonymously as Golfers A, B, C, D and E, admitted to the Tour as early as 2010 or 2011 that they had used the same spray as Singh but were not sanctioned under the Tour’s anti-doping program.

In 2013, the Tour announced it will suspend Singh for 90 days following his admission to Sports Illustrated that he had used the spray, which contained trace amounts of the banned growth hormone IGF-1, but quickly lifted its suspension when the World Anti-Doping Agency determined the product didn’t contain enough of the hormone to be performance-enhancing. The report said that Singh sued the Tour, contending that the announcement damaged his reputation, leading to the loss of his longtime endorsement deal with Cleveland Golf.

Singh’s lawyer, Peter Ginsberg, claimed that the Tour’s legal strategy attempts “to rewrite their rules” to cover their own tracks.

“The Tour during the course of this litigation attempted to justify its arbitrary treatment of Singh by claiming that other golfers who had used the SWATS products played on the Champions Tour and the Program does not apply to Champions Tour golfers,” Ginsberg wrote in the memorandum. Golf.com said the PGA Tour could not be reached for comment.

While the Tour contends that its officials merely followed evolving WADA guidelines, Singh accused Commissioner Tim Finchem of lying when he pinned the Tour’s decision to withdraw its anti-doping case against him on a change in WADA policy that “clarified that it no longer considers the use of deer antler spray to be prohibited unless a positive test results.” Singh contends WADA did no such thing, citing testimony from WADA’s science director that WADA’s position on deer antler spray hadn’t changed in several years.

Ginsberg told GOLF.com the Tour’s treatment of Singh was the result of organizational failure that raises questions about the way the Tour conducts its business.

“As detailed in the filing, the PGA Tour’s bogus rationalization for treating Vijay differently than it treated multiple other players, and then Commissioner Finchem’s unwillingness to remain in his deposition and explain why the PGA Tour ignored WADA’s guidance about the Spray and then misled the public, speak volumes about the golf organization’s conduct and failure to fulfill its duties and obligations. Either the PGA Tour was woefully ignorant or woefully arrogant, but, either way, it was woefully irresponsible and Vijay suffered as a result,” he was quoted as saying.

Gokul Natesan, an Indian-American basketball player has picked up his second all-region award of the postseason, this time from the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). According to reports, Gokul Natesan landed on the NABC’s All-South Central Second Team after the Colorado School of Mines guard had a standout 2015-16 season to lead the Orediggers to the NCAA Tournament. The NABC awards are selected and voted on by the member coaches in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II.

Natesan was also a First-Team D2CCA All-Region pick earlier this month, according to a press release from the school. The D2CCA stands for the Division II Conference Commissioners Association. This is just the latest in a series of honors for the 6 ft 5 inch, 190 lb Natesan this season. His other recent honors include RMAC Defensive Player of the Year and First-Team All-RMAC (Rocky Mountain Athletics Conference). The junior averaged 20.7 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2.1 steals per game to lead Mines (24-8) to the RMAC Tournament title game and an NCAA Tournament appearance. He was a member of the RMAC Shootout All-Tournament Team.

He’s an achiever off the court as well. Natesan’s classroom performance earned him First-Team Academic All-America and RMAC Academic Player of the Year and First-Team Academic All-RMAC honors.

Brought up in Santa Clara, California, Natesan attended Cupertino High School. He had chalked up many wins and honors while still in high school. Natesan’s detailed game performance on the Colorado School of Mines website tracks his achievements year by year since high school. He spent the 2012-13 season at La Jolla Prep Basketball Academy in San Diego, California, where he averaged 15.5 points per game and put in a stellar performance getting recognition as an MVP, earning selections to various teams. Natesan averaged 18.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game while making 75 3-point baskets as a junior.

He kept up his grades, making it to the academic honor roll all four years, and was a member of the National Honor Society and French Honor Society and was named the 2012 Cal-Hi Sports CCS Winter Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

In 2013-2014, Natesan was named RMAC Freshman of the Year. In 2014-2015,  he scored a season-high 25 three times, and crossed 20 points seven times. In 2015-16, he was part of the team recognized as a CoSIDA First-Team Academic All-American, a prestigious recognition given to teams composed of most outstanding student-athletes, which is administered by College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Chicago IL : Punjabi sports lovers from the States of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio turned out, in huge numbers, to enjoy Kabaddi and Vollyball Tournaments, followed by a vibrant cultural program. The event was organized by Punjab Sports & Cultural Club at Elk Grove Village, Forest Preserve grounds in Chicago.

In the Kabaddi Cup Tournament, there were three Teams from India, USA, and Canada. In the final match, USA Kabaddi Team defeated the Indian Team by scoring 38 points against 19 and won the first prize. The second prize went to the Indian Team.

The first prize of $13,000 was sponsored by prominent businessman, Darshan Singh Dhaliwal from Milwaukee, in the memory of his father, late Subedar Kartar Singh Dhaliwal. The second prize of $11,000 was sponsored by the host Punjab Sports & Cultural Club.

The people watched the Kabaddi Tournament with great enthusiasm, as Kabaddi  is affectionately called the mother of all sports in Punjab. In the Volleyball Tournament, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sports Club won the first prize of $1500 and Glenview Spykar, the second prize of $1100.

Raja Krishan Murti, the candidate for US Congress, in his address, appreciated the efforts of the Punjab Sports & Cultural Club in promoting love for sports among the people of Punjab. He urged the young generation to give up their sedentary life style. He called upon them to take active interest in their physical fitness and eat healthy food.

Murthi also appealed to the audience to support him in the ensuing Congress elections and give him an opportunity to serve them. OP Meena, Consul at the Consulate General of India in Chicago, who also spoke on the occasion, said that the love for sports among people of Punjab should be a source of inspiration to their counterparts from other parts of India. “This would go a long way in enriching the culture of physical fitness and enabling people to lead a happy life”, he added.

In the evening, the popular singers, Harbhjan Mann and Gursewak Mann, entertained the audience for more than two hours with their hit Punjabi folk songs. The people thoroughly enjoyed the cultural program and many of them, especially youngsters, were seen dancing energetically to the melodious tunes.

Typical Punjabi food, coupled with hot tea, was served throughout the day to the spectators, free of cost. The weather, which was highly pleasant, was instrumental not only in attracting people but also in retaining them throughout the tournament.

Harvinder Singh, President of the Club, Amrik Singh (Amar Carpet), Finance Secretary & Media In-charge, Happy Heer, Jaskaran Singh Dhaliwal, Lovedeep Singh Dulat, Narinder Singh Sra, Gian Singh Seehra, Gurmeet Singh Bhola, Rajinder Singh Dyal, Manminder Singh Heer, Lucky Sahota and Swaran Singh Sidhu, Board Members of the Club, contributed their best efforts in making the event a grand success.

Aasif Mandvi, an Indian American comedian and two Indian entrepreneurs are among Asia Society’s “2015 Asia Game Changers” as per a press release issued here on September 16th.

The list of eight ‘Game Changers’ were recognized for making a transformative and positive difference for the future of Asia and the world.

Indian American comedian, activist and spokesman for Muslims and Asian Americans Aasif Mandvi received one of the honors. Asia Society recognized Mandvi as a ‘Game Changer’ for using comedy to challenge perceptions and work for good. Mandvi initially gained popularity in 2006 as the senior Middle East correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” where he seized the spotlight to become a powerful spokesperson for Muslims and Asian Americans.

Originally from Mumbai, Mandvi grew up in England and Florida before moving to New York to pursue acting. As his fame rose, Mandvi challenged stereotypes and provided a voice for Muslim Americans, changing the game in terms of how Asians are viewed on television.

In 2015, he co-wrote, produced and acted in the Web series “Halal in the Family” for the popular comedy site Funny or Die, using the sitcom format to tackle Islamophobia. Outside of acting, Mandvi is an advocate for a number of charity organizations such as Relief 4 Pakistan, Partners In Health and Planting Peace.

Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar is the first woman to head an Indian bank and was honored for transforming an industry and empowering the masses, according to Asia Society. She was just 22 years old when she joined ICICI Bank as a management trainee in 1984. By the time she was 47, she was the bank’s CEO. Not only did she make history by becoming the first woman to lead an Indian bank, she also transformed the entire Indian retail banking industry.

Under Kochhar’s leadership, ICICI Bank has achieved great milestones year-after-year by expanding its businesses, leveraging technology to bring value to its urban and rural customers, and partnering with the public and private sectors to create new opportunities. While inspiring many young women, Kochhar has racked up numerous awards and accolades, including the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honors, in 2011; being featured in Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2015; ranking 36th on the Forbes “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” in 2015; and ranking second in Fortune India’s list of “Most Powerful Women in Business” in 2014.

Kiran Bir Sethi, the founder of Design for Change and The Riverside School, was honored for empowering children to change the world. The society said Sethi is the champion of youth volunteerism. Sethi noticed that teachers rigidly stuck to the textbooks and punished students who deviated from the prescribed lesson plan when her son was in school in Ahmedabad. Noticing this issue, she founded The Riverside School in Ahmedabad in 2001 to provide an alternative model which focuses on quality of learning, student well-being and empathy in education.

Sethi used one lesson to have children roll incense sticks for several hours, which led to the children pushing for child labor to be abolished. The teaching methods have resulted in Riverside rivaling India’s top schools on national assessment scores in math, English and science.

In 2009, Sethi expanded on the principles practiced at Riverside to found the “Design for Change” movement with the goal of getting children to drive change in their communities.

The movement to encourage youth volunteerism, which has since spread to more than 300,000 children in 35 countries, is based on a simple model of having kids act on changing problems that bother them.

The “Asia Game Changer of the Year” award went to Philippine boxer Manny Pacquiao. He is a member of the Philippines House of Representatives and was awarded this highest honor for using his sport and fame for good. “This year’s honorees could not be more different from one another,” said Asia Society president Josette Sheeran in a statement. “What they share in common is that they all fight for a better today and inspire the world to do things differently.”

The group of ‘Game Changers’ were selected through a global survey of more than 1,000 leaders. They will be recognized formally for their honors at an Oct. 13 event at the United Nations.

Top seeds Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza beat Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova to win the U.S. Open doubles title on Sunday, September 13, 2015 and cap off a perfect visit to Flushing Meadows, New York.

At 34 years old and already a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Hingis paired with  Sania Mirza of India to beat Casey Dellacqua of Australia and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

Hingis, the Swiss former-world number one and her Indian partner Mirza, tore through the doubles tournament without dropping a set to claim back-to-back grand slams after their victory at Wimbledon.

It has been a productive and busy visit to New York for Hingis who also captured the U.S. Open mixed doubles title with India’s Leander Paes.

Having only joined forces in March, Mirza and Hingis have enjoyed a successful partnership reaching six finals in 12 events and winning two majors.

After easily taking the first set Hingis and Mirza broke to open the second and apart from a late wobble were never really threatened by the Australian Dellacqua and Kazakhstan’s Shvedova.

For Hingis it was her second U.S. Open doubles title coming 17-years after she won her first in 1998 with Jana Novotna.

“With all the pressure on us, all the time, we’re really happy to come through,” Mirza said. Mirza thinks her victory will be a big deal back home in India. “It has been a great year for us,” Mirza said.

“To win Wimbledon was a great year. Then to come back and back it up to win the US Open, we feel like we’re a really solid team. And we came through again today. Grand Slams mean a lot, but obviously being a woman and being the first one to be able to achieve everything that I’m achieving is amazing for, not just India, for Indian women, but for Indian sports, for women to pick up sports in the country and that side of the world,” she said. “So I hope they’re proud.”

Natasha Subhash, an Indian American teen is taking the tennis world by storm. Natasha Subhash, a resident of Fairfax, Virginia, has got a wild card in the 2015 US Open Tennis Championships, becoming the youngest ever Indian-origin player to play for the Junior girls title in a Grand Slam event. Subhash will have her first taste of elite tennis when she heads to the U.S. Open in New York for the qualifying tournament this month. She is not nervous, though, but rather the opposite. “I am very excited for it.”

At just 14 years old, Subhash, of Fairfax, Va., has earned a spot in the U.S. Open, a grand slam tennis tournament in New York. The tennis sensation has been playing the sport for a long time. Her parents enrolled her in classes at the nearby Four Star Tennis Academy when she was just 4 years old, and she has been honing her craft there ever since.

“As soon as I started to compete in tournaments, I knew that this was what I wanted to do,” Subhash told the media. “I think that once I started to compete in tournaments on a regular basis and started doing well in them, I knew that I could be really good at this,” she said.

It didn’t take long for her natural talent to come through, and she felt confident that she would be a great player. In her U-16 age group, Subhash is ranked No. 1 in the Virginia and Mid-Atlantic regions, as well as in the United States Tennis Association standings. Nationally, she is ranked No. 5. of all young girls in the world; the International Tennis Federation ranks Subhash 1,118.

In total, Subhash said she has won around 150 trophies, including 10 gold, silver and bronze tennis balls, for her successes at national tournaments. She is a humble winner, too, earning the Sportsmanship Award at the National Hard Court Championships.

“I usually don’t think about that, because I have to focus on what I have to do in the match,” Subhash said. “But, it’s always nice to know that you have support when you’re playing.” Like a true competitor, Subhash appreciates past success but is driven to get better each and every day.

“My goals now are to just get better every day and to love what I do,” said the young tennis star, who will be attending Falls Church High School in Falls Church, Va., this fall. “My long-term goal is to see if I can be a professional tennis player.”

Subhash was born in Washington, D.C., to parents who immigrated to the United States from India. When she’s not dominating on the tennis court, she loves to read, listen to music and spend time with her friends. She credits her parents and their roots for making her the person she is today. “That has shaped me a lot as a person,” Subhash said of her parents being raised in India. “They’ve taught me all of their values and beliefs, and I couldn’t be more thankful.”