New Delhi, Feb. 7 -- Five minutes before she walked on to the court for her first WTA Tour main draw match, Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi learnt about the change of opponents. Rather than UK's Yuriko Miyazaki, who pulled out due to illness, she would be playing Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus. It was just one of the surprises thrown at the Indian player this week. And she took it in her stride like she had everything else.

"It didn't matter," says the 15-year-old. "I was only focused on my game."

When she entered the WTA 125K L&T Mumbai Open, the biggest women's tennis event in India, Revathi was best known as the player who, in December, was selected to train at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Mallorca for a year. Over the course of the week, she...