Badminton: Dubai girl Tanisha now among world's top 10 junior players

Dubai - If the year 2020 had not played havoc with our lives, Tanisha could have jumped even higher in junior world rankings

After a raging pandemic robbed her of the chance to play top-notch badminton last year, the New Year has given Dubai’s very own Tanisha Crasto a shot in the arm.

No, it’s not the vaccine that has injected fresh hope in her journey as a young shuttler.

What greeted Tanisha with a beautiful surprise was the latest world junior badminton rankings. And this 17-year-old student from the Indian High School, Dubai, could not stop smiling when she saw the latest world junior rankings that put her name on the ninth place in the girls doubles category — a massive jump from her 25th place in the previous rankings.

“It’s a really great feeling because it’s not the India ranking, it’s the world junior ranking. Of course, I am very happy and my parents are also very happy,” Tanisha, who has already represented India in two junior world championships, told Khaleej Times over phone from Hyderabad.

“It has really motivated me. I think it gives me the confidence that if I can get this rank at the junior level, I can also do very well at the senior level. So I think this has motivated me to train harder and work harder.”

If the year 2020 had not played havoc with our lives, Tanisha could have jumped even higher in junior world rankings.

“For sure, I think if the 2020 was a normal year with the regular tournaments, my ranking would have been in the top five because just before all the Covid-19 situation, we won many international events. It was like a peak for us, you know, we were like on a winning spree,” said Tanisha who partnered Aditi Bhatt until last year.

“I think we were playing really well at that time, so I am pretty sure if we had played more tournaments, we would have won more and our ranking would have been better.”