19-year-old American tennis player Nishesh Basavareddy may not be a household name yet, but he will be soon. The former Stanford Cardinal tennis star turned professional in December 2024 after an impressive summer and fall on the Challenger circuit and an appearance in the Next Gen ATP Finals.
Sealed with an ACE 💥
19-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy takes out defending champ Tabilo for his first ATP quarter-final and first Top-25 win! #ASBClassic25 pic.twitter.com/gdr4gaVmDo
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) January 8, 2025
In the ASB Classic draw as a qualifier, he took out the defending champion Alejandro Tabilo, the World No. 23 Chilean star, in three sets. Basavareddy was cool and composed throughout the match. He is a smart player with good instincts.
Nishesh Basavareddy just beat one of the breakout players of 2024 in Auckland
World No. 133 and climbing. Making an early push in 2025 to crack the Top 100
The 19-year-old American has a ton of upside. Does a lot of things you can’t teach
— notyourcountryclub (@showfortennis) January 8, 2025
Basavareddy, a native Californian, could meet his friend and fellow Californian Alex Michelsen, 20, in the quarterfinals. Michelsen has appeared in two ATP finals, but this will be Basavareddy’s first ATP tour-level quarterfinal.
The win boosts his ranking. He started the tournament at 133 but will be at least at 115 next Monday when the updated rankings come out. He is inching his way closer to the Top 100 in warped speed.
Basavareddy has navigated his life changes, from college student and tennis player to ATP player with grace. He recently talked about his thought process when deciding to leave Stanford after two seasons. “I think over the course of the summer and the fall there was a lot of thought, but I knew that if I qualified [for Jeddah] and with me also having a main-draw wild card for the Australian Open, that just made the decision a lot easier. Knowing that I was going to be playing the bigger tournaments and getting close to the Top 100, that made it a pretty easy decision then, but it was never easy to leave behind college tennis and my team at Stanford.”
