Harsh Mankad (born 10 November 1979) is a former world ranked ATP Professional

tennis player Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

from

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He played Davis Cup for India between 2001–2010 and was the No. 1 singles player on the team for several of those years.

Personal life

He is the grandson of world-renowned

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

Vinoo Mankad Mulvantrai Himmatlal "Vinoo" Mankad (; 12 April 1917 – 21 August 1978) was a former Captain of Indian cricket team and appeared in 44 Test matches for India between 1946 and 1959. He was best known for his world record setting opening partn ...

, and the son of Indian Test cricketer and Mumbai captain

Ashok Mankad Ashok Mulvantrai Mankad (12 October 1946 – 1 August 2008) was an Indian cricketer. A right-handed batsman, he played for India in 22 Test matches. Ashok Mankad was born in a Vadnagra Nagar Brahmin family as the eldest son of Vinoo Man ...

and pioneer women's tennis player Nirupama Vasant. Harsh resides in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Early career

Mankad was the #1 ranked junior tennis player in India, winning National Titles in every age group. Mankad earned a scholarship to the University of Minnesota where he played #1 singles and #1 doubles from 1999 to 2002. He played collegiate tennis at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. Mankad won the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's National Indoor Tennis Championships in

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in November 2001. He was the first Indian to win this event and consequently secured the No. 1 ranking in the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

US tennis rankings for 2001–2002.

International career

On the ATP Tennis Tour, Mankad played against several world #1 ranked players, including Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, Lleyton Hewwitt, and other top ranked players such as James Blake, Marcos Baghdatis, and Scheng Schalken. Mankad has been a member of India Davis Cup team for over a dozen Davis Cup ties between Sep 2001 and Oct 2010. He was the highest ranked singles player from India on the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...

in June 2005 (No. 220). He won the Manchester Challenger title in July 2006, becoming the first Indian since

Leander Paes Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player and the first Asian man to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players of all-tim ...

to win an

ATP Challenger Series The ATP Challenger Tour (known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series) is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. It was founded in 1976 as a replacement for the ILTF Satellite Circuit (founded in 1971) as ...

title. Mankad qualified for the main draw of doubles in Wimbledon 2010 partnering

Ilija Bozoljac Ilija Bozoljac ( sr-Cyrl, Илија Бозољац, ; born 2 August 1985) is a former Serbian professional tennis player and coach. Bozoljac achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 101 on 29 January 2007. In doubles, he reached a c ...

Post retirement

Since retiring from the ATP Tour, Mankad has been the Director of the Tennis Academy at Golden Valley Golf and Country Club in Minneapolis, MN from Feb 2012 - Oct 2013. Mankad instituted several new marketing initiatives as the director and established a premiere tennis academy at the Country Club. He also co-Founded "Tenicity", a web and mobile platform aimed at enhancing the overall quality of a tennis program.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mankad, Harsh 1979 births Living people Indian male tennis players Minnesota Golden Gophers men's tennis players Indian expatriate tennis players in the United States Racket sportspeople from Mumbai Tennis players from Minnesota Indian expatriates in the United States