Ankita Raina (born 11 January 1993) is an Indian tennis player who has been the country’s leading woman in singles for most of the past decade. She has won more than twenty titles on the ITF circuit, a bronze medal in singles at the 2018 Asian Games and a WTA doubles title in 2021, and she played at the Tokyo Olympics with Sania Mirza. She received the Arjuna Award in 2021.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Ankita Ravinderkrishan Raina |
| Born | 11 January 1993, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India |
| Age | 33 |
| Sport | Tennis |
| Plays | Right-handed, two-handed backhand |
| Turned professional | 2009 |
| Highest ranking | Singles No. 160 (2020); doubles No. 93 (2021) |
| Coach | Hemant Bendrey |
| Honour | Arjuna Award (2021) |
Early Life
Raina was born in Ahmedabad to a Kashmiri Pandit family that had left the Kashmir valley. Her mother, Lalita, who worked for an insurance company, introduced her to tennis at four at a club near their home. At 14 she moved to Pune to train under Hemant Bendrey at his academy, and Pune has been her base ever since.
Career
She turned professional in 2009 and won her first ITF singles title in 2012. She has spent most of her career on the lower-tier circuit in Asia and Europe, often travelling alone and funding herself, and has won more than ten singles and many doubles titles there.
At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta she won bronze in women’s singles, only the second Indian woman after Sania Mirza to win a singles medal at the Games. She has been the mainstay of India’s team in the Billie Jean King Cup (formerly the Fed Cup); in 2020 she and Mirza took India to the play-offs for the first time.
In February 2021 she won the WTA title at the Phillip Island Trophy in Melbourne with Kamilla Rakhimova, making her the second Indian woman after Mirza to win a WTA doubles title, and she broke into the top 100 in doubles. She played in the main draw of all four Grand Slams in doubles and partnered Mirza at the Tokyo Olympics.
She has continued to compete on the ITF and WTA circuits in singles and doubles and to represent India in team events.
Awards and Honours
Major Results
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Ankita Raina born?
Ankita Raina was born on 11 January 1993 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India and is 33 years old.
Featured image: Ankita Raina plays in qualifying at the Cary Tennis Classic, North Carolina, June 2026. Photo by Hameltion, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
