04/12/2017
Is Ritika-Simran pair answer to India’s women's doubles woes?
NAGPUR: It is no secret that women's doubles is the weakest link in Indian badminton. This fact was also admitted by India's specialist doubles coach Kim Tan Her of Malaysia while witnessing the Senior National Badminton Championship at Nagpur last month.
However, there is a ray of hope as few young pairs have been doing exceedingly well this season and ready to break into the top league with their talent and hard work.
The duo of Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi (Mumbai) tops the chart. The 16-year-old girls have matured beyond imagination and are already challenging the established senior players. Some of the recent results are the testimony to this fact.
In the back-to-back international tournaments at Hyderabad and Mumbai, the teenage duo has captured the eyes of the experts with their spectacular display and have already been termed as the next star pair as far as Indian women's doubles is concerned.
In the ongoing Tata Open International Challenge at Mumbai, the Maharashtra pair has qualified for the main draw before their run was halted by second seeds and world No. 62 pair of Ng Tsz Yau and Yeung Nga Ting (Hong Kong).
On the way to qualification, Ritika-Simran pair knocked out one of India's experienced doubles pairs Harika Veludurthi and Karishma Wadkar 21-12, 21-16.
At Hyderabad too, during the International Series tournament a couple of weeks ago, the extremely talented pair was close to entering the women's doubles semifinals.
They stunned Indonesian pair Austin Cindy Pratiwi and Guniarti Rafika in straight games to enter the quarterfinals. In an exciting quarters, Ritika-Simran gave a big scare to world No. 46 Jakkampudi Meghana and Poorvisha S Ram and went down fighting 19-21, 17-21.
Ritika is happy with her recent success but she is determined to make her mark in the senior category as soon as possible.