Background
Sunitha was born and raised by parents Manohar and Savithri in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Sunitha was born and raised by parents Manohar and Savithri in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Rao has 8 career titles on the International Tennis Federation Women"s Circuit and has reached 7 finals in singles. She has played on many Women's Tennis Association Tour events. 2002–2007
Rao played her first Women's Tennis Association match at the 2002 Brasil Open – Women"s Singles event, where she defeated Vanessa Henke in the first round.
She was beaten by Anastasia Myskina in the second round.
Sunitha played at the Hansol of Korea Open 2004 where she was beaten by Miho Saeki in the first round. Rao participated at the Internationaux de Strasbourg 2005, but was overpowered by Iveta Benešová in the first round.
Then she played at the Sunfeast Open where she beat Neha Uberoi in the first round before falling to Elena Likhovtseva. Sunitha took part at the Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic 2006, where she lost to Angelique Widjaja in the First Round.
She also suffered a first round defeat at the 2007 Sunfeast Open to Nicole Pratt.
Rao defeated Sandy Gumulya in the First Round of the Sunfeast Open to advance to the second round where she lost to Anne Keothavong. She then lost in the first round of the Bell Challenge to Alina Jidkova. 2008
Sunitha received an entry into the Ministry of Posts, Telegraphs & Telephones, France Pattaya Open via a Lucky Loser spot.
She beat Junri Namigata before losing to Ekaterina Bychkova.
Then, at the Copa Colsanitas, she lost to Edina Gallovits in the first round. Rao received the best result of her at the 2008 Dancer Fitzgerald Sample Classic in Birmingham.
She beat Petra Kvitová (who would be the future world no2 and Wimbledon titlist) in the first round and Naomi Cavaday in the second before falling to Alona Bondarenko in the third round. She partnered with Sania Mirza, representing India in the women"s doubles event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
They got a walk-over in round one, but lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina of Russia in round two.