EXCLUSIVE: Aryan Shah aspires to make Grand Slam debut next season, wants more support for singles players in India after Pune Challenger loss

Aryan Shah, at 19, made his Challenger-level main draw debut at Pune this week. The Indian teenager, who played his first Challenger event last week in Delhi, received a Wild Card for the tournament. Playing on Center Court, Shah lost to 6th seed Brandon Holt of the USA. The match lasted for just over 70 minutes with Shah losing in straight sets 2-6, 2-6.

Despite the loss, Shah took home a lot of positives. He was playing in the Balewadi Stadium for the first time and also for the first time on such a big stage. Later, he sat down with FirstSportz in Pune for a brief chat.

Played here after a couple of years. Felt pretty good to be back in Pune. But this is my first time playing at this venue in Balewadi Stadium. Not a bad experience at all. Felt good.

Aryan Shah told FirstSportz

Playing in front of the home fans, especially when you’re just 19 is never easy. When asked whether he was nervous before the match, he couldn’t help but smile.

Obviously. For sure. This is my second challenger overall and first in the mains[main draw]. Played first challenger of my career last week in Delhi. I performed really well. Played against a good guy in the qualies[qualifiers]. Knowing you’re playing your first main in a challenger and that too against a seeded guy, there were nerves but you should know how to handle it.

Shah said

Aryan Shah 🇮🇳 (586) lost to Brandon Holt 🇺🇸 (153) 2-6, 2-6 in 1st round at ATP 100 Pune. pic.twitter.com/RexmZa8xsL

— Indian Tennis Daily (ITD) (@IndTennisDaily) February 18, 2025

Last year was Aryan’s first full season as a pro and he played multiple futures. He also won his first pro title in Kingston and also had a runner-up finish there. Additionally, he won a doubles title in India a few months back and was also named in the Davis Cup team. Naturally, the transition from juniors to pros wasn’t easy. He spoke about how the mental aspect of the game plays a pivotal role in the senior circuit.

If people watched my match today you can clearly make out the mental aspect between the two of us. He was really calm and stable on the court. Credit goes to him. I have to work on that and be more mentally stable no matter what the score is. But I think seeing my past results, I’m used to tanking a lot of matches when things don’t go my way but here I feel I did a decent job and fought till the very end.

Shah said

Shah loves to dictate the points and has a naturally attacking game. But his ITF player profile says that his preferred surface is clay. He humbly wants people to ignore that. He added he prefers playing on hard courts.

Just ignore that. It’s just that I’ve played more matches on clay and hence won more on the surface. It’s just rubbish.

Shah said with a smirk

Whether he’ll play next week in the Bengaluru Challenger or not, Aryan remains unsure as he waits for any confirmation. He just had a 2-word response. “Fingers crossed.”

Shah remains flabbergasted by the level he’s seeing at the Challenger circuit and wants to make a mark here. He refuses to go back to playing futures and wants to improve his ranking by competing on the Challenger Tour.

For now, I’ll take an off for 4 weeks maybe. Will train. There are a couple of futures in India but I’m not really sure if I want to play those after seeing this level. I personally feel that I do belong here but I need to make my way through it. I’ll be eyeing Challenger qualies next.

Shah added

In the past, Shah spoke about enjoying doubles. He still enjoys it but made it clear that singles has always been his priority and will continue to be in the future. Although, he doesn’t mind winning some extra prize money by playing doubles.

From the very beginning, my focus and priority has been on singles but I wouldn’t mind playing doubles. I actually have a lot of fun. I feel doubles in a way help construct singles points tactically. I want to keep playing doubles along with singles but singles is my first priority. But playing doubles, I wouldn’t mind getting some extra bucks in my pocket.

Shah admitted

Tennis can be a lonely sport and the 19-year-old was mature enough to acknowledge it. He revealed that he has never traveled alone on tour and expressed his gratitude towards his parents for supporting him in his journey.

I have never traveled alone. It’s always either my mum, my mum and dad, or my coach. So credit goes to my parents as well for tagging along my journey and so far, it has been a comfortable one. Travelling alone weeks in weeks out isn’t easy but I’m glad my mother joins me to most of the places.

Shah said

Aryan Shah wants more support for singles players from the Indian tennis ecosystem

India, despite being the most populated country in the world, hasn’t been able to produce one good singles star who could compete at Grand Slam events for over two decades now. Every few years, a young player comes and shows a ray of light, but the end result is the same- failure.

Sumit Nagal, India’s highest-ranked singles player doesn’t rank inside the top 125 (currently) and most likely will have to play qualifiers at the French Open this year. Does Aryan think this state of Indian tennis will change in the near future? “I hope it does change,” he answered.

He feels not many people are involved in producing singles players. He also pointed out how Indian players often switch to doubles very easily after some years of no-shows on the singles tour.

I feel not a lot of people are involved in producing singles players. After a certain age, 21-22, players feel like they won’t make it any further and they completely switch from singles to doubles. I’m not saying doubles is an easy sport but it’s comparatively less tiring to the body and as a matter of fact, Indians are good at the net. I feel that’s an easy way out.

Shah said

In 2023, Rohan Bopanna, India’s ace tennis star and multiple-time Grand Slam champion launched the ‘Doubles Dream of India‘ program which aims at nurturing top Indian talent for doubles. But what about singles? Aryan wants the tennis ecosystem to consider something similar for singles.

Also, a lot of people are behind supporting doubles players. We have a doubles dream group [Doubles Dream of India] which is doing a great job- physios, coaches, trainers. But I feel they should consider having the same thing supporting singles players. That might help produce great singles players eventually.

Shah added

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Doubles Dream of India (@doublesdreamofindia)

The 19-year-old further talked about his inspiration. Naturally, he didn’t have any big household names in the Singles format from India so Roger Federer and Pete Sampras were the people he looked up to.

I’m 19 and India hasn’t produced any great singles players in the last 2 decades. Not taking anything away from Sumit Nagal at the moment. I don’t want to be in controversy. He’s doing pretty great and I’m not saying he’s a great player. But my inspiration always has been Roger [Federer] and Pete Sampras.

Shah said with a nod

Going forward, Shah “hopes” that 2025 could be a breakthrough season for him where he announces himself to the world. Rankings don’t always motivate him but his aim is to play a Grand Slam next season.

I hope it can be. I think I’m not that clueless on the court. I just need to work on a few tactical changes in my game. I can do much more better than this. Short-term goals- training hard and working on my physicality. Ranking hasn’t been a target for me, it just follows through. But getting to top 300 would be great by the end of the year. If I’m being over-ambitious, I should be playing singles Grand Slam qualies at one of the majors next year.

Shah concluded