Dubai: The UAE’s Rikeetha Pereira has achieved a career-high ranking of 353 after winning her first ITF Grade 4 title in Central Africa last week.
Pereira, who has been a consistent performer in the UAE for the past couple of years, has been travelling on the ITF Junior Circuit since the past three months. After a couple of ITF tournaments in the UAE and Kuwait, Pereira has played in South Africa, Lebanon and Zimbabwe, and during the course of the summer, the 15-year-old Indian High School student has collected 55 points that has enabled her to climb up the rankings to an all-time career high of No 353 at the beginning of this week.
The highpoint of her career came last week in Cotonou, Benin when she defeated local girl Esperence Follykoue 6-3, 7-6 (5) in an exciting final at the ITF West/Central Africa U-18 Circuit to lift her first title.
Pereira started playing tennis when she was only seven years old. She made steady progress through regular coaching sessions and participating in tournaments to come out as one of the most promising juniors in the UAE.
“This has been a tremendous journey for Rikeetha. She has worked hard and she has won her first-ever tournament on the ITF. She was very excited to see that all the hard work she has put in is finally coming together,” Pereira’s mother Anitha told Gulf News.
“We are so grateful to Indian High School, in particular Dr Tapan Das, for allowing Rikeetha to continue with her education as an external student so that she can concentrate on her tennis career. Embarking on a tennis path is never easy. Not only it calls for sacrifices, but for a lot of support from the corporate sector,” she added.
This week the Indian girl has already reached the singles quarter-final in another Grade 4 tournament being held in Lome, Togo. “She will be back in Dubai for a few days of rest after which she will travel again to South Africa for the next tournament,” he mother said.
