Prithvi Sekhar (born 3 October 1993) is an Indian male deaf tennis player. He represented

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 ...

at the

Deaflympics The Deaflympics, also known as Deaflympiad (previously called World Games for the Deaf, and International Games for the Deaf) are a periodic series of multi-sport events sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at which deaf athle ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

and

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

. He won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles at the

2017 Summer Deaflympics The 2017 Summer Deaflympics (), officially known as the 23rd Summer Deaflympics (), is an international multi-sport event that took place in Samsun, Turkey from July 18 to July 30, 2017. 3,148 athletes from 97 countries competed in 18 sports with ...

partnering with

Jafreen Shaik Shaik Jafreen (born 7 September 1997) is a deaf Indian tennis player. She represented India at the Deaflympics in 2013 and 2017. She claimed a bronze medal in the mixed doubles at the 2017 Summer Deaflympics partnering with Prithvi Sekhar. C ...

. He is also currently employed in the Integrated Coach Factory in Chennai.

Biography

Prithvi started playing tennis from 2002 when he was just eight years old. He was actually left with two options either to choose cricket or tennis at the age of eight and he decided to choose the latter. He idolised tennis icons

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Новак Ђоковић, Novak Đoković, separator=" / ", ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at N ...

and

Roger Federer Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...

Early career

He went on to represent India at the

2013 Summer Deaflympics The 2013 Summer Deaflympics (), officially known as the 22nd Summer Deaflympics (), was an international multi-sport event that took place in Sofia, Bulgaria from July 26 to August 4, 2013. The marathon had been held before in Füssen, Germany o ...

which was also his first Deaflympic appearance, but he did not win a medal. It was through his mother he managed to get to know about a tournament like Deaflympics of its stature. He was sent by his mother to take part in the national trials in 2013 which was held in

Aurangabad Aurangabad (), officially renamed as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in 2023, is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district and is the largest city in the Marathwada region. Located on a ...

where he proved his worth by claiming gold medals in both men's singles and men's doubles. Due to his notable performances, he was selected to the Indian contingent for 2013 Summer Deaflympics. Prithvi was selected to compete for India at the 2017 Summer Deaflympics as India sent a delegation consisting of 46 participants for the multi-sport event. Prithvi Sekhar along with

claimed a historical bronze medal in the mixed doubles at the

, marking India's first ever Deaflympic medal in tennis.

Rising up through ranks

He then became a prolific tennis player despite being deaf, improving his ratings in the ATP singles and doubles to be among the top ten deaf players. His first breakthrough in professional tennis circuit eventually came in May 2018 when he scored his first ATP point by winning a match at the International Tennis Federation World Tennis Tour which was held in China. He won the men's singles world title at the 2019 World Deaf Tennis Championships after defeating Czech Republic's Jaroslav Smedek 6–4, 6–3 in straight sets in the men's final. He came into the 2019 World Deaf Tennis Championships unseeded. However, he defied the odds defeating four seeded players including top seed world no 1. Gabor Mathe of Hungary and then beating third seed Jaroslav Smedek in the final to claim his first world title. He also secured bronze medal in men's doubles event at 2019 World Championships. He was also part of the Indian Railways team which claimed gold medal in the World Tennis Railway Championships in 2019 which was held in Bulgaria. He made his second Deaflympic appearance during the 2021 Summer Deaflympics (held in May 2022) representing India and he claimed three medals in the competition. During the

2021 Summer Deaflympics The 2021 Summer Deaflympics, officially known as the 24th Summer Deaflympics or XXIV Summer Deaflympics, and commonly known as Caxias Do Sul 2021, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 15 May 2022 in Brazil. The main host city wa ...

, he teamed up with Dhananjay Dubey to claim silver in men's doubles event whereas he collaborated with Jafreen Shaikh to clinch bronze in

mixed doubles Mixed doubles or mixed pairs is a form of mixed-sex sports that consists of teams of one man and one woman. This variation of competition is prominent in curling and racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis, and badminton (where it is known ...

. He also secured a bronze in men's singles event to increase his personal medal tally to three during the multi-sport event.

References

External links

* *
Prithvi Sekhar
at Tennis Explorer
Prithvi Sekhar
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sekhar, Prithvi 1993 births Living people Indian male tennis players Tennis players at the 2013 Summer Deaflympics Tennis players at the 2017 Summer Deaflympics Tennis players at the 2021 Summer Deaflympics Medalists at the 2017 Summer Deaflympics Medalists at the 2021 Summer Deaflympics Deaflympic silver medalists for India Deaflympic bronze medalists for India Deaf tennis players Indian deaf people Racket sportspeople from Chennai Tamil sportspeople