India finally got something to cheer about at the World University Games in Rhine-Ruhr, and it came from the tennis court. 20-year-old Vaishnavi Adkar made her mark on Tuesday by reaching the women’s singles semifinals, and with that, she’s bagged herself a bronze medal.
Big Tennis Moment for Vaishnavi Adkar
Vaishnavi played like a champ in the quarterfinals. She looked in control right from the first serve and beat Germany’s Sina Herrmann 6-1, 6-4 without much fuss. Her next match is in the semifinals against Slovakia’s Eszter Meri.
What’s really special here is that this makes her only the second Indian tennis player to win a medal at the World University Games. The last time this happened was way back in 1979 when Nandan Bal got a silver in men’s singles. That’s 45 years ago.
Since both semifinal losers get bronze as per the rules, Vaishnavi’s already got a medal locked in, no matter what happens next.
India’s Medal Count Still Pretty Low
Apart from Vaishnavi, there hasn’t been a whole lot to celebrate for India so far. Just one more medal—a bronze in badminton’s mixed team event—and that’s about it halfway through the Games.
In swimming, Srihari Nataraj won his 50m freestyle heat with a time of 23.06 seconds, but it wasn’t enough to go further. He ranked 28th overall, while the last qualifying time was 22.72 seconds.
Other swimmers didn’t really make it either. Nithik Nathella swam the 200m backstroke, and Nina Venkatesh and Latiesha Mandanna were in the 50m freestyle. Divyanka Pradhan and Naga Vasupalli raced in the 100m breaststroke, but none could break through the early rounds.
The men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team, which had Srihari, Aneesh, Shivank, and Shoan, ended up finishing seventh in their heat. They too didn’t make the final.
Archery Brings Some Hope
There was a little boost from archery though. Parneet Kaur topped the women’s compound ranking round with a score of 701, just one point ahead of South Korea’s Yerin Park. That was a solid performance.
With Madhura Dhamangaonkar finishing sixth and Avneet Kaur coming in 22nd, the Indian women’s compound team ended up with the second seed. They get a straight pass into the quarterfinals and will go up against the winner of Italy vs Ukraine.
On the men’s side though, things didn’t go that well. Aryan Rana placed 29th in the recurve category, while Vishnu Chaudhary and Mrinal Chauhan ended up 42nd and 47th. South Korea pretty much dominated this part.
As a team, the Indian men finished 12th and will now face fifth-seeded USA in the pre-quarters. It’s going to be a tough match.
Vaishnavi’s Medal the Biggest Highlight So Far
Right now, Vaishnavi Adkar’s medal is the standout moment for India at these Games. It’s a big deal—not just because medals are rare, but because tennis success at this level is even rarer for us. The last time we saw something like this, most of today’s players weren’t even born.
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