Alla’s Tennis Pedigree Began at Home in India

Sophomore men's tennis player Abhishek Alla has more to his name than a USTA/ITA National Small College Division III Championship, a title he won on October 12, 2013 for Carnegie Mellon University. The international student hails from Hyderabad, India, where he was introduced to tennis at the age of six and where he became a national champion at the age of 14.

Alla first began playing tennis when his mother enrolled him and his siblings in a tennis academy to get some exercise. Two years later when he was eight, he was competing in 10-and-under tournaments and performing well.

"The more competitive I got, the more fun the sport became," Alla said.

That competitiveness transitioned to traveling all over India for tournaments, and when Alla turned 13, he traveled throughout Asia for tournaments and found himself on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) circuit a year later.

When Alla was 14, he won the 14-and-under Adidas Nationals and was ranked second in the country. He represented India in the 14-and-under World Juniors, which took place in Malaysia and held his highest ranking of three in the 14-and-under Asian Juniors circuit.

After two years of high school in India, Alla decided he wanted to go to a sports academy and finish school in the United States. He found IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, and boarded there in 2010 as a junior. His older brother, Srikar, who plays tennis for Rice University, came along.

"IMG was awesome," Alla said. "We played tennis for three hours in the morning and the high school was attached so it was very convenient."

When it was time for Alla to make a decision about college, he was looking at DI and DIII colleges with good academics and a respected tennis program. He emailed Carnegie Mellon head coach Andrew Girard and got a reply.

"I was intrigued by Shek's email," Girard said. "His ITF tennis rankings and results and academic test scores and transcripts were impressive, as well as the accompanying video of him against top competition."

Alla then asked his dad how he felt about him attending Carnegie Mellon.

"My dad has an affinity for Carnegie Mellon, as he received his master's in mechanical engineering here and said it was a very good school and would be great if I could get in," Alla stated. "That's when I asked Coach [Girard] about the admissions process and decided to apply ED [early decision] to the Carnegie Institute of Technology for engineering."

Alla has a quiet and confident approach to tennis which served him well during the ITA Regional and National tournaments this fall.

The sophomore ended up facing two teammates in the regional tournament, something that wasn't ideal but that he expected, since five of the eight final players were Tartans.

As he headed to the national tournament in Fort Myers, Fla., Alla was one of six sophomores in the nine-player field and knew anyone in the draw could win.

"I didn't feel there was one player who could dominate the whole tournament," Alla explained. "I felt that if I took the tournament one match at a time, winning was possible."

"It felt pretty good," Alla said about winning the tournament. "It felt special since only one other CMU person had won it."

That other CMU player is current Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Kayvon Fatahalian, who won the event in 2000. Alla actually became the second player under Girard to win the ITA National Singles Championship, as Amy Staloch won the women's side in 2005 as a sophomore.

"After the tournament I told Shek I knew he would win," Girard added. "I have a lot of confidence in him and he's become a stronger and more mature player since ending last year as our No. 2 singles player."

In the fall, Alla had an 11-match win streak going until he was topped by Amherst's Joey Fritz at No. 1 singles in a dual match against the Lord Jeffs, the day after he won the ITA National Singles Championship.

Alla, ranked first in the nation at singles, and the team, which has five players ranked in the top 50, are looking forward to getting back together after the holiday break and continuing the season.

"I'm looking forward to the whole season ahead of us," Alla said. "It should be fun. Knowing that we have a good team will give us confidence as we take on some of the nation's top tennis programs."

The 19th-ranked Tartans will have four matches against Division I and Division II opponents before heading to California for their spring break tour against six nationally-ranked teams.  As the rankings stand now, the Tartans will play the entire month of March (nine matches), against nationally-ranked opponents.