India's Next Serena Williams

Qamaruddin Khan picked up a tennis racket for the first time sixteen years ago. It was just another challenge for Khan, who had previously played cricket, volleyball and badminton at the national level. He wanted his three children to play badminton but their hometown in the state of Rajasthan did not have an indoor court for practice. “Let’s go play something new,” Khan told his then six-year-old son Faisal, and took him out to try tennis.

Faisal quickly took to the sport. His young brother Fardeen soon followed in his footsteps, and eventually their younger sister Aleen stepped on the court, too. Khan taught them how to serve and hold backhand and forehand grips with the help of books and YouTube videos. They progressed through the rigors of training and started competing — and winning. They appeared in the national junior ranks and in the All India Tennis Association and International Tennis Federation tournaments. Today, Fardeen and Aleen are the highest-ranked players in Rajasthan, and 19-year-old Aleen is currently all-India number 16.

“My whole family is devoted to tennis. We eat, drink, sleep and live with tennis every day,” says the kids’ mother, Razia. She makes them breakfast every morning before they hit the court at 6 a.m. They practice until noon, come home for lunch and rest. Then the grind continues at 3 p.m. Rain or shine, they follow this routine. Other players typically join them in the evening as they are training other would-be stars across beginner, intermediate and even advanced levels. This allows them to earn some money.

“I was the one who was not interested in playing tennis,” says Aleen, who changed her mind when her brothers started winning district-level tournaments, coaxing her competitive spirit alive. In her first district tournament in Jaipur she made it to the finals and then lost. It was then that she realized how hard she would need to work to win. She soon began traveling across the country to play. As the youngest sibling, Aleen sees herself as having three coaches, plus there’s always someone to play with. A hard-hitter, she takes inspiration from Serena and new-gen champion Iga Świątek. Aleen won her division at the Roland Garros series event in Bangalore in 2018, which brought her attention on the national circuit. Now in the women’s division, she earned her first WTA point last year.

At his first national tournament in Punjab at age 12, Faisal lost in the semi-finals, but the owner was impressed by him. “They gave me a scholarship of free training, food, stay and travel for being there,” he told OZY via a Zoom interview. But the academy was not a good fit for him as it catered to senior players and, in an echo of Richard Williams, his father disagreed with the academy about the significance of tournament play. Today, Faisal says his serve and defense are his strengths, and he takes inspiration from Boris Becker and Rafael Nadal. About the latter he says, “I love his fighter spirit.” In 2016, Faisal won his first national tournament, and in 2019 reached his career-high ranking (thus far): number 11 on the Indian men’s circuit.

Fardeen is the sibling who wants to have fun on the court. Laughing during his interview with OZY, he recalled how he toyed with an opponent in a match when he was 17: “I did an underarm serve, he returned, then I did a drop, he returned, and I made a drop shot again, he returned, and then I did a drop shot again.” At age 15 he began playing national tournaments. “Faisal used to train me and treat me like a kid. He was always playing with me like a toy,” he says. Along with his sister, Fardeen won his category at Bangalore’s 2018 Roland Garros series event, then emerged victorious that same year at the junior finals in Chennai, where he defeated India’s second-ranked junior player.