India, Feb. 23 -- A day after Vaishnavi Adkar capped off her career's most successful and - by her own admission - surprising week by finishing singles runner-up in the W100 ITF Bengaluru event as a wildcard, coach Balachandran Manikkath told her this was just the start. "Literally step 1," he said.

That step, a sizable one, made her jump 224 places in Monday's WTA rankings, placing her 466th as the new India No.2 in women's singles. Adkar was India No.7 coming into Bengaluru, where a giant-killing run of scripting three career-best wins and taking down two top-150 opponents ignited the leap.

This wasn't routine for Indian tennis: not since Sania Mirza has there been a women's singles finalist from the country at the ITF 100 level or hi...