‘Every time I play it’s almost a win for me’: Yuki Bhambri on injuries and gratitude

Yuki Bhambri (Image credit: X) ALMATY: Yuki Bhambri’s smile is telling. It belongs to someone who has learned to accept what life throws at him, not with resignation, but with the understanding that there is no point in defending against what cannot be changed. You work with what you have, make the best of it, and move on.The 34-year-old’s Zen-like poise was forged in the storms he’s weathered most of his adult life. He started the 2026 season with good reason for optimism. Bhambri, fresh off a first Grand Slam semi-final at the 2025 US Open alongside close friend Michael Venus, carried that momentum into the new year, climbing to a peak ranking of 18th in February.Then tennis did what life so often does, complicated plans. An elbow injury that required surgery sidelined Venus from the Tour and when the New Zealander returned in March, the pair needed time to find their stride again. In August in Winston-Salem, Bhambri injured his quad and has yet to regain full fitness.“That’s tennis for you,” Bhambri told TOI at the Almaty Arena. “That’s why you have to respect the players who are able to stay on the Tour for so long. It’s so hard to do it year after year, maintain the ranking, keep improving, playing and chasing Grand Slams and championships.”For Bhambri, the injury marked a step back, his ranking dropping to 46th.This week he plays the Almaty Open with American Ryan Seggerman, the duo is seeded four. Next, he plays the Challenger in Seoul and ends the season at the Paris Masters.“I’ve been in these situations before because of injuries where you play for a year, a year and a half and then you have to quit,” he says. “But this time it’s a little different. I was able to play, but I didn’t quite perform as well as I would have liked. So it’s been a learning curve, almost a fresh start to get back to competing in major events.”Starting over is a familiar exercise for Bhambri. Once the teenage prodigy of Indian tennis, he won the Australian Open junior title at 16, became the junior world No. 1 and won a silver medal at the Youth Olympics. After turning pro, his singles journey was repeatedly interrupted by tendinitis in both knees.About three years ago, he set his sights on doubles.The Asian Games was the target this year and Bhambri and Dhakshineswar Suresh were medal prospects. Bhambri’s movement was hampered by injury and the pair bowed out in the quarter-finals.“It’s disappointing how it turned out,” he says, a smile flickering across his face.Bhambri knows what an Asian Games medal looks like. At the 2014 Asian Games, he won two bronze medals, one in singles and the other in doubles.“I feel very lucky to have done it a long time ago,” he says of the medals. “Hopefully I’ll get another chance in four years to get better at it.There is a marked difference in the way Bhambri talks about his career. He doesn’t pretend that losing is easy or that ambition has somehow evaporated with experience. He still wants to win, climb the rankings and compete in the biggest tournaments. But years of watching his career stall as his body was injured may have changed his perspective.“Every time I play, it’s almost a win for me,” he says, his eyes following the players around him at the Almaty Arena. “Somewhere in the back of my mind, there’s gratitude that I’m still here and still competing. You want to win everything, of course, but a small part of me considers just being here, competing at these events, a small victory in itself.”Was there anger before gratitude?“I’ve had various setbacks, but a lot of them have been about not being able to play,” he said. “Maybe it comes from growing up in a country where a lot of these things weren’t available. I was always handed racquets from my sisters. You learned pretty early on that if you break one, you can’t necessarily expect to get another one. So breaking racquets or getting upset on the court wasn’t an option because you might not have anything to play with. Maybe some of that stayed with me.”Perhaps this is where Bhambri’s composure is anchored, not in some grand philosophy of sport or life, but in the practical understanding that what you have is worth taking care of. The rocket had to last. The possibility to play could not be taken for granted.Years later, the stakes are different, the rockets are his own, and the ambitions are considerably greater. Yet the instinct to work with what is in front of him remains. The injury may have cost him time, momentum and ranking points, even switching lanes, from singles to doubles, but it hasn’t dampened his desire to compete.