Nirupama shifted her base to Sarasota, Florida in 1997 where she trained with David O Meara who was the former coach of Leander Paes for two years. At the 1997 Lipton Championships in March, her third WTA-level event, she failed to win her first match, losing it to Elena Brioukhovets. A month later, she competed in the main draw of a WTA-level event for the first time (at the 1997 Japan Open), with qualifying wins over Yi Jing-qian, Keiko Nagatomi, and Akiko Morigami. However, she fell in the first round to Jolene Watanabe. The following week, at the Danamon Open in Jakarta, she played her second WTA-level main draw match, losing it also (to Yuka Yoshida). During the clay court season, she would fall in the first qualifying matches of both the Internationaux de Strasbourg (to Kristina Brandi), as well as Roland Garros (to Park Sung-hee). Although she still didn't qualify, Sanjeev performed a little better at the grass court tournaments, winning her first qualifying matches at both the DFS Classic (against Haruka Inoue) and Wimbledon (against Kate Warne-Holland). She also failed to qualify for the US Open, winning only one match. During the course of the 1996–97, Sanjeev also won four ITF titles in doubles with different partners.