Shuttling her way to success

Her long tiring travels from Kandivli to Thane are starting to pay dividends. Putting behind her struggles while shuttling between buses and battling the irritating traffic, the 16-year-old Simran Singhi has found international success at the senior level after dominating the junior circuit in India. She has been on a roll in the women’s doubles ever since she partnered Nagpur-based Ritika Thaker.

The young pair from Maharashtra,  recently won their second international senior tournament in Mauritius. Before that, they had sizzled at the top podium in Ivory Coast last year.

“I am feeling very nice. It is our second international title so I am very happy and looking forward to further tournaments. I hope to perform well,” said Simran after the title win in Mauritius.

The top-ranked U-19 pair in India, 17-year-old Ritika and Simran, had also won the All India Junior Ranking Tournament in Tirupur last month, which secured them a spot in the Indian squad for the Asia Junior Championships.

She had no time to celebrate as morning after the title win, she landed in Bengaluru for the All India Senior Ranking tournament that got underway from Tuesday. From there she will head to Hyderabad for another All India Senior Ranking tournament. After that she will attend a camp for the Asia Junior Championships in the same city before spearheading India’s challenge in the Asia Junior Championships in Indonesia in July.

Simran picked up the badminton racket after watching senior accomplished player Shlok Ramachandran playing in his neighbourhood Simran started training at Udar Pawar Badminton Academy in Goregoan Sports Complex and excelled in singles in sub-junior categories. “I grew up watching Shlok Ramachandran who is like my elder, brother. Chirag Shetty is also from the same area and my interest developed in badminton,” she said. “After that I started training at the Thane Academy under coaches Akshay Dewalkar and Shrikant Vad. Akshay bhaiya (former senior national champion) has supported me a lot. It takes me one-and-half-hours for a one-side journey when I go alone. But when I go in my father’s car it takes only one hour. I also play with personal coach Sanjeev Mahajan at GSC,” she said.

Simran became the national champion in the sub-junior categories. However, her desire to be a top singles player in the country took a backseat after she partnered Ritika in doubles and started doing well. Though the desire to win an Olympic gold remains intact, she wants to be a doubles specialist, an area were India hasn’t done well in Olympics and World Championships compared to the singles events.

“I was winning singles titles and getting to doubles finals also but not winning doubles titles. After partnering Ritika I started winning titles. My focus is little more on doubles right now. Our coordination is good and we are bonding well. We don’t practice together like most of the other wome’s doubles pairs but still we gel well and beat those who train together,” she said. Known for unleashing powerful smashes from the back, she wants to be equally good in front of the net as well.

"I play at the back and have good smashes, Ritika plays near the net and is smart. I want to improve my net play also like her,”she said.