They were not willing to let her participate at first since she was only eight and it was Under-10. But I insisted because there was no minimum age limit and we wanted her to play. Ankita then went on to beat the then Maharashtra No 1 Surabhi Varma, who was 14 years at the time, causing a huge upset.”
In 2007, Ankita participated in the Under-14 Asian Tennis Series. During these series, she played various tournaments in India and within Asia and won the series. Later, Ankita got selected among the top eight tennis players of Asia after winning the Under-14 Asian Tennis Series. Soon after this achievement, she received the opportunity to play at Melbourne Park, the venue of the Australian Open, and she defeated her South Korean opponent in the finals. In 2009, Ankita started playing tennis professionally at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournaments in Mumbai. Till the end of 2010, she continued playing the local ITF events and tournaments with limited victories. Ankita defeated her opponent and World No. 4 tennis player, Samantha Stosur, at the US Open in 2011. In an interview, after winning the event, Ankita said,
I started crying. I had a flashback of everything that I had gone through all these years. On the third match point that I won, I just told myself ‘believe, it is now or never, and grab the opportunity.”
In 2011, Ankita, along with her partner Aishwarya Agrawal, won three ITF circuit finals in doubles events. In 2012, Ankita Raina won her first professional singles match in New Delhi. In the same year, three more double matches were successfully won by Ankita in New Delhi. Ankita played mediocrely for the next few years at the ITF Circuit championships. Then, in 2017 Ankita won two quarterfinal matches of her career in the Mumbai Open Tennis Championships. Ankita Raina attained the 181st world ranking in women singles after winning the Mumbai Open $25k title. She was ranked at the fifth position In India after Nirupama Sanjeev, Sania Mirza, Shikha Uberoi, and Sunitha Rao, the renowned Indian women tennis players. Ankita participated in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, and won a bronze medal in singles championships. Ankita is regarded as the second woman from India after Sania Mirza who won a WTA-level title in singles in Asian Games. In the same year, Ankita won the doubles event along with Karman Kaur Thandi at the 2018 OEC Taipei WTA Challenger.
Ankita while receiving a 2 lakh rupees cheque after winning bronze in the 2018 Olympics