Hyderabad, Jun 21: Vishnu Vardhan, who was on Thursday, chosen by the All India Tennis Association (AITA) to partner Leander Paes at the London Olympics 2012, is a Hyderabad boy and holds great promise.

For any athlete, featuring in Olympics is a dream come true. It will be the same feeling for the 24-year-old who will make his Olympics debut when the world's biggest sporting spectacle opens in London on July 27.

Interestingly, the opening night of London Olympics, July 27, is Vardhan's birthday. What a special day it would be for the youngster to be part of the Opening Ceremony in London on his 25th birthday.

Vardhan has represented India in Davis Cup, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Hopman Cup and Junior Davis Cup.

Height is one of his advantages. Vardhan is 188 cms tall.

He played his first Davis Cup match against Japan in September, 2011. His biggest achievement is winning the silver medal, partnering Sania Mirza at the Asian Games 2010 in Guangzhou, China. In the same edition of Asian Games, he was part of the Indian men's team that won the silver medal.

He has also won ITF Futures titles and Men's All India Ranking tournaments. He played in the main draw of ATP Chennai Open in 2008 and 2012.

Vardhan has powerful serves and is currently ranked 328 in singles in the world. He was born in Secunderabad and began playing tennis at the age of eight.

Vardhan turned pro in 2008. He began tennis under coach CV Nagaraj at The School Of Power Tennis, Secunderabad. The right-handed player's favourite surface is hard court.

If Paes gives the nod to partner Vardhan, it would also be a double joy for the Hyderabad youngster to play on the hallowed turf of All England Club, the venue for Wimbledon, which will also play host for Olympics tennis.

Recently, in Mysore, he won two ITF titles in as many weeks. First, on June 10, 2012, he captured $10,000 Zuari Garden City-ITF title and on June 17, 2012, bagged $10,000 Toyota Bangalore Open ITF trophy.

The year-end 2011 ATP ranking for Vardhan was 318 in singles. And doubles it was 194. However, he achieved his highest career singles ranking of 312 on May 9, 2011.

Vardhan studied B.Com at Wesley College in Secunderabad. He is employed at Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and is a HR executive. He is also brand ambassador of ONGC.

Vardhan's idol is a former American great Pete Sampras. His hobbies are listening to music, reading books, yoga and harmonica.

OneIndia News