Athlete of the Week: Nandita Krishnan, Women's Tennis

Like most of the extraordinary athletes at Hopkins, sophomore Nandita Krishnan, who is from Chennai, India has a rich history of athletes in her family. In her case, tennis is her family’s game.

Krishnan, who was awarded her second consecutive Centennial Conference women’s tennis player of the week honor on Tuesday, is the third generation of Krishnan tennis players; her father and her grandfather both played professional tennis, a major reason why she decided to take up tennis at the young age of six. She has been playing tennis ever since.

As Krishnan grew up, she continued playing in junior tournaments in India in different age groups, including 12’s, 14’s and 18’s, very similar to tournaments here in the United States. Traveling around much of the country, Krsihnan was given the opportunity to train against people from different backgrounds and playing styles, an experience she recounts as “great . . . for tennis and life in general.”

In addition, Krishnan took part in the Nike Junior Tour world championships for the 12 and under age group, which took place in numerous locations including Sun City, South Africa. She also took part in International Tennis Federation events across Asia.

Krishnan’s improvement as a tennis player did not stop there, though. Now here in the U.S., she has continued to improve during her time at Hopkins where she has gone 34-13 in her career so far, good for second on the career wins list as just a sophomore. This year, she has primarily played in the second singles spot, as well as first doubles and currently has a five-game winning streak.

Coming to the U.S., Krishnan said, was a lot about Hopkins and its tennis program.

“[Chuck Willenborg, head coach of both the women’s and men’s tennis teams,] is one of the main reasons I chose to come to Hopkins and he has really changed the men’s and women’s programs,” she said. “He has a lot of experience and has helped us all become better players. [Assistant Coach Dave Woodring] has also been extremely supportive of us, in our tennis and academic pursuits as well and has been instrumental in our good results this year.”

And they have truly been good results. So far, the only loss the team has suffered was to Cal State Northridge, a strong Division I team. The team also ended a five-match losing streak against eighth-ranked Carnegie Mellon, and was expecting a successful match against seventh-ranked Pomona-Pitzer before the match was rained out.

The tone of Krishnan hinted at a close-knit team that has strong goals and expects to reach them. For Krishnan personally, her own success has been just as present.

“My best win was over the number-five player in the region from Carnegie Mellon,” she said. In this match, her and freshman Hailey Hogan played together in the first doubles spot.

“[Hailey and I] have had a great run so far, with wins over highly ranked teams from Carnegie Mellon and Chapman,” Krishnan said. With seven matches remaining before conferences, there is plenty of time to continue their current run of success. Krishnan seems both expectant and confident that they will do so.

Still only a sophomore, it is hard to say what lies in her future. In regards to tennis, she claims that her goals are “to hopefully help the team to an NCAA title as well as the individual NCAA singles and doubles tournaments,” a goal which seems to be a common occurrence among Hopkins athletes.

As far as Krishnan is concerned about her career, though, she has more of a distinct plan. She explained that she wants to return back home.

“I would like to be involved in public health programs back in India,” the public health major and psychology and Spanish minor said.

Even when she’s not on the court, tennis is never far from Krishnan’s mind — in her free time, she enjoys watching tennis greats, “especially Rafael Nadal and Kim Clijsters,” she said.

With the way Krishnan continues to rocket through the record books, maybe one day she’ll be remembered as one of Hopkins’s tennis greats.