Sahaja Yamalapalli (born 29 October 2000) is an Indian tennis player. She is India's number one in women's tennis. She has career-high rankings of world No. 284 in singles, achieved on October 2024, and No. 408 in doubles, achieved on 7 October 2024. As of June 2026, Sahaja has won four ITF titles in singles, and one in doubles. She has been representing the India Billie Jean King Cup team since 2023, with a win–loss record 2–9.
Early life Yamalapalli was born on 29 October 2000 in Hyderabad, India. Her mother is Supriya while her father Bhavaniprasad Yamalapalli works at an engineering college.
She started playing tennis at the age of ten. Yamalapalli graduated from Sam Houston State University in 2017 where she majored in Food Science and Nutrition. She has won the Player of the Year Award for collegiate tennis. She was the second tennis player in the university's history to be honored with the award, the first being Irina Sotnikova.
She was also the first women's tennis player who earned ITA national ranking 110 in the university's history while also becoming the first player to ever crack the ITA NCAA national ranking. Yamalapalli was Southland Conference women's tennis student-athlete of the year 2018, 2019 and 2021 for being top in studies and sports.
Career Yamalapalli made her debut on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour in 2021. She won her first main-draw match in a WTA 125 event at the Mumbai Open in February 2024. She won the SoCal Pro Series and became the third Indian women's tennis player to win an ITF pro title. She also won the ECT ITF women’s singles title. She mainly plays tournaments on the ITF World Tour, where she has won four titles in the singles and one in the doubles.
In October 2025, Yamalapalli made her WTA Tour main-draw debut as a wildcard entrant at the Chennai Open and defeated lucky loser Priska Nugroho, before losing to third seed Donna Vekić, in the second round.
ITF Circuit finals Singles: 6 (4 titles, 2 runner-ups) LegendW25/35 tournamentsW15 tournaments ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreWin 1–0 Mar 2022ITF Nagpur, IndiaW15 Clay Emily Seibold 6–5 ret.Win 2–0 Jul 2022ITF Gurugram, IndiaW25 Hard Viktória Morvayová 6–3, 7–6(5)Loss 2–1 Jul 2023ITF Nakhon Si Thammarat, ThailandW25 Hard Mananchaya Sawangkaew 4–6, 0–6Win 3–1 Dec 2023ITF Solapur, IndiaW25 Hard Ekaterina Makarova 6–4, 6–3Win 4–1 Jun 2024ITF Los Angeles, United StatesW15 Hard Amy Zhu 6–4, 7–6(4)Loss 4–2 May 2026 ITF Wichita, United StatesW35 Hard Reese Brantmeier 4–6, 0–6
Doubles: 4 (2 title, 2 runner-ups) LegendW60/75 tournamentsW25/W35 tournaments ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 0–1 Jul 2024Evansville Classic, United StatesW75 Hard Hiroko Kuwata Alicia Herrero Liñana Melany Krywoj 2–6, 0–6Loss 0–2 Sep 2024ITF Punta Cana, Dominican RepublicW35 Clay Zhibek Kulambayeva Ariana Arseneault Kayla Cross 1–6, 7–5, [8–10]Win 1–2 Jun 2025ITF Santo Domingo, Dominican RepublicW35 Hard Hiroko Kuwata Esther Adeshina Sofía Cabezas Domínguez 6–3, 6–2Win 2–2 Sep 2026Le Neubourg Open, FranceW75 Hard Naiktha Bains Martyna Kubka Anna Sisková 3–6, 6–4, [11–9]
See also Tennis in India
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