Photo: KV Srinivasan
From being bed-ridden for months to holding her first pro tennis title, it has been a literally back-breaking journey for Shruti Ahlawat.
Another player in her situation would have hung up the boots, but not the 19-year-old, who comes from a family of wrestlers moulded in the akhadas of Jhajjar, Haryana.
“I’m happy that I won my first title, but it’s done now. So I have to keep my head down and keep working hard, especially my fitness because I need to be able to play five-six matches in a week to last the whole season,” Shruti says, referring to the $15K ITF title she won on the hard courts of the DLTA complex in New Delhi on May 3, 2026.
“I train here. I grew up here, so winning my first title in Delhi is very special to me, special also because I was out (of action) for a very long time.
“Winning this title helps me get more motivated, work hard towards my goal, and just gives me more confidence that I can do it.”
A STAR STOPPED IN HER TRACKS
The teenager had announced her arrival as a promising talent when she won the Grade B1 Asian Closed junior tennis event in Pune in Sep 2022, which saw her break into top-50 in world rankings.
But what followed was a cautionary tale of poor injury management and sheer misfortune.
“A week later, I had a hairline fracture in my shin. But I kept playing. I kept thinking, ‘I’m in the top-50 now, I need to get to top-20. I need to get in the top-10, and then I’ll take a break’,” Shruti said.
“I didn’t have a really good physio team, so we didn’t look at it very carefully, and then I broke my left shin also.”
Incredibly, Shruti, then 16, proceeded to play in the Australian Open junior grand slam. “I didn’t want to skip because it was my first main draw of a Grand Slam. At that time, I was not very mature with decision making,” she admitted.
A NIGHTMARE UNFOLDS
Eventually she would take a seven-month break, but nothing prepared her for what was to come.
“In June when I was playing, suddenly I felt a really sharp pain in my back. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t feel my right leg. The pain was too much.”
It turned out to be a slip disc, the pain from the impinged sciatica nerve nearly nipping her nascent career in the bud.
“For a very long time, for a few months, I needed help to get out of the bed, to eat, to take shower, to use the restroom and everything. So definitely it was a very, very difficult time for me,” she recalled.
“But , I was very lucky to have my family. I would, some days, say things like, ‘I don’t think I can get back, because I can’t even feel my leg right now, how am I supposed to play?’
“But thanks to them, they never said that once. They always kept saying, ‘you’ll get better. You will get better. Life is beyond tennis’.”
LEARNING TO WALK AGAIN
Ironically, her grandfather Dayanand had encouraged her to take up a non-contact sport in order to avoid injuries which had curtailed the wrestling careers of his two sons, one of them Shruti’s father.
Nevertheless, Shruti had imbibed the never-say-die attitude of the Jhajjar soil. She was not going to give up the game she loved without a fight.
“It took me almost one year to start walking and jogging again. I had to build it up slowly — walk for three minutes, 30 minutes, one hour, slowly keep building.”
She played her first tournament in March 2025, a $35K event in Gurugram. She qualified for the main draw but had to take a six-month break again since her body wasn’t ready.
“The problem was that I took such a long time doing bed rest that my other body parts got so very weak, very sensitive.
“So I had a lot of injuries — my ankle, my shoulder, my knee, my glute, everything. It took me a very long time to get over those things.”
She had strength and conditioning expert Justin Russ from Florida — whom she had known from her days at the Stephen Koon’s Impact Academy in Thailand — guiding her with recovery.
LACK OF A SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME
The ordeal proved to be a steep learning curve. “It taught me that at the end of the day, you’re the one who has to motivate yourself. You’re the one who has to keep your head straight and keep going towards the goal you want to reach.
“I have to be my own cheerleader, because times will get tough and everything will happen, but I have to be my number one support.”
Shruti said her experience highlighted the need for increased awareness about sports science, especially injury prevention and management.
“Growing up, till the time I was 16, I could not find the right physios. I did over training my whole life, I would just go to the gym and do what regular people would do, because that’s what my coaches and trainer made me do and the injuries I got were because of that.
“I did not have a structured, tennis-based strength and conditioning programme. And injury holds you (back) a lot, and you miss a lot of time. I could not get the junior to women’s transition time.”
For context, Shruti has played only 11 tournaments in the women’s circuit so far. Apart from the five she has played this year, there were four in 2025 and two, which she entered with her junior ranking, in 2022.
A PROMISING FUTURE, ONCE MORE
She maybe still some way from attaining peak fitness, but that she didn’t drop a set until the final in Delhi and reached the semifinal in Panipat a week earlier — with an all-win record against fellow Indians — is a fair indicator of her fitness and game.
Now that the nightmare is truly behind her, Shruti is looking to play more and catch up on lost time.
“I would definitely love to play more tournaments. I’ll be spending more time on the court. Because right now there are no tournaments in India till August or September, I will have to travel abroad. And I’m hoping to be top 400 by the end of the year. That can be achieved. That’s the goal for this year.”
Cross Court Winner 