That is why a fighting 6-7(4), 4-6 loss to Divij Saran in the second round of the AITA-MSLTA ITF Futures tennis tournament at the Ranade Tennis Centre didn’t bother him too much.

“This is a routine struggle,” says the 6’ 1” tall lad. “But I want to get out of this circuit as fast as I can if I have to progress to the next level,” he says. To explain his new philosophy, Gajjar gives an example of Benjamin Becker, his college mate who had beaten American great, Andre Agassi in his last US Open in 2006.

“Becker played in the Futures Circuit for just one year and got into top 300. Next year he went through Challenger Circuit and accumulated points to be among top 200 and then qualified for US Open, where he went on to beat Agassi. He’s in a different league now and I too, want to do this kind of stuff”.

Gajjar had a fairly successful stint as a junior and held the No. 1 spot in the state under-12, U-14 and national U-16 and U-18 categories. For the record, he had won his national title at the age of 16 in the year 2000. To graduate to the next level, Gajjar had enrolled in the US Collegiate Tennis in January 2003. “I was stagnating here and needed better coaching and tougher competition. The standard of tennis there is great,” informed Gajjar. During his stint at US Collegiate tennis, Gajjar was No 26 in singles and No 6 in doubles.” Once I beat American John Ishner there, who is now in the top 100,” he recalls.

But before returning to India in the January 2007, Gajjar picked up a right shoulder injury. “I guess I got this while lifting weights,” he says. Soon he realised that the injury was severe. “I had torn tendons. I couldn’t lift my arms and serving had become impossible,” informs Gajjar, who had to go through rehab once he returned to India and it went on till May last year.

“Then I took part in a Futures Circuit played at Chandigarh, Dehradun and New Delhi with little success as I wasn’t fully fit. I only recovered fully in January this year,” states Gajjar, who had reached the semis in the Futures event at New Delhi earlier this month.

Gajjar feels he has become more aggressive after his stint in the US. “My coach Robert Cox, told me to attack from the net as much as possible and remain aggressive throughout the match. Now I’m following his guidelines and feel that I’m much improved a player now,” he says.