Nirupama Sanjeev (née Vaidyanathan; born 8 December 1976) is an Indian former professional tennis player. In the 1998 Australian Open, Sanjeev became the second Indian woman (after Nirupama Mankad) in the Open era to feature in a major main draw, the first one in singles, and the first to win a major match, defeating Gloria Pizzichini. She also won the bronze medal at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games in mixed doubles, partnering Mahesh Bhupathi. Sanjeev was the first Indian woman to enter the top 200 of the rankings in singles.
Early life and tennis career
Nirupama was born in the Southern Indian town of Coimbatore. She started playing tennis at the age of 5 and was influenced very much by her brother. Her father K.S. Vaidyanathan was a cricketer who had played for Tamil Nadu in Ranji Cricket tournament; he coached her at the start of her career. Her first tennis tournament foray was the National Under 12 tournament, where she reached the semi-final and went on to win her 1st National title in Under 14 age group at the age of 13. One year later in 1991, she won the National Women's title at age 14. She won the National Women's title in 1992–1996.
In 1996, she moved to Luxembourg and she turned professional at the age of 18. She player her first WTA-level tournament in late October, 1996, at the SEAT Open. She won two matches in the qualifying stages, before losing to Jana Kandarr. On November 17, 1996, Sanjeev won her first ITF Women's Circuit title, defeating Raluca Sandu in the finals of the $25,000 tournament in Bad Gögging, Germany. Sanjeev played her first Grand Slam tournament at the 1997 Australian Open, where she lost in the second qualifying round to Yuka Yoshida, having overcome Petra Mandula in the previous round.
Nirupama shifted her base to Sarasota, Florida in 1997 where she trained with David O Meara who was the former coach of Leander Paes for two years. At the 1997 Lipton Championships in March, her third WTA-level event, she failed to win her first match, losing it to Elena Brioukhovets. A month later, she competed in the main draw of a WTA-level event for the first time (at the 1997 Japan Open), with qualifying wins over Yi Jing-qian, Keiko Nagatomi, and Akiko Morigami. However, she fell in the first round to Jolene Watanabe. The following week, at the Danamon Open in Jakarta, she played her second WTA-level main draw match, losing it also (to Yuka Yoshida). During the clay court season, she would fall in the first qualifying matches of both the Internationaux de Strasbourg (to Kristina Brandi), as well as Roland Garros (to Park Sung-hee). Although she still didn't qualify, Sanjeev performed a little better at the grass court tournaments, winning her first qualifying matches at both the DFS Classic (against Haruka Inoue) and Wimbledon (against Kate Warne-Holland). She also failed to qualify for the US Open, winning only one match. During the course of the 1996–97, Sanjeev also won four ITF titles in doubles with different partners.
At the 1998 Australian Open, Sanjeev was awarded a wildcard into the main draw (her first and ultimately the only appearance in a singles Grand Slam main draw). She became the first Indian female in the modern era to feature and win a round at a main draw Grand Slam, beating Italy's Gloria Pizzichini.
Later that year, in April, she couldn't qualify for the Makarska Championships, being defeated by Virág Csurgó. Although she lost in the final qualifying round of the Bol Open, she received entry into the main draw as a lucky loser; however, she lost the encounter against Amélie Mauresmo. She also went on to lose in the qualifying stages of both the Páginas Amarillas Open and the French Open, as well as Wimbledon, the Bank of the West Classic, the Boston Cup, and the US Open. She then won the Bronze Medal at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games in Mixed Doubles, partnering Mahesh Bhupathi.
The 1999 season saw her losing her qualifying matches at the Thalgo Open and the Australian Open (falling to Brie Rippner and Sandra Kleinová, respectively). She further failed to qualify for the clay court WTA events she played in April–May, losing to Eva Bes Ostariz, Rosa Maria Andres-Rodriguez, Janet Lee, and Surina De Beer, at the Portugal Open, the Belgian Open, the Internationaux de Strasbourg, and the French Open, respectively. She also had a disappointing result at Wimbledon. However, at the US Open, she did have two good wins in qualifying against Tathiana Garbin and Katalin Marosi, followed by two further qualifying wins against Mireille Dittmann and Magdalena Maleeva at the Malaysian Open, and another at the Thailand Open against Tatiana Kovaltchouk.