Indian badminton has been on an upswing in the last decade with the exploits of the likes of PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen and the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
Now, a Mumbai lass all of 16 is taking baby steps to fulfill her ambitions of reaching the heights of her fellow countrymen.
The name is Naishaa Kaur Bhatoye and she's one of the fastest emerging stars on the Indian badminton circuit at the moment having won the Spanish Junior Open and Cyprus Junior Open this year. She had also clinched the France Open in 2023 and bagged quite a few international medals as well.
The 16-year-old is currently training at the Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad.
Naishaa, who won triple titles at the recently concluded CCI-GMBA District Badminton Championship 2024, started playing badminton at the age of seven.
"I started playing in my society and that's how I started playing the sport and I pursued my career more seriously when I went to train at the Prakash Padukone Academy,'' Naishaa said.
"I was there for 3-4 years and later I was not sure whether I should pursue it or not. It was just a hobby for me and then some taking part in some tournaments and that’s how I felt I wanted to become a player."
The 11th standard student of St Gregorious School, Chembur is the India No 2 in under-17 category while she is the World No 5 in the under-19 level.
"After 3-4 years at the Padukone Academy, I started to play the all-India level and I was performing well and became the India No 1 in under-13 category and then I was called Gopichand academy to train there full time,'' she added.
Naishaa, who is a native of Hoshiarpur in Punjab, aspires to play some of the major top-draw badminton tournaments on the international circuit.
"I intend to play World Championships, All-England juniors and hopefully the Olympics someday,'' Naishaa revealed.
The promising player feels the strong point of her game is her attacking approach.
"I feel attacking approach is my biggest strength and I also have a strong backhand,'' she added.
The 16-year-old is inspired by Spanish legend Carolina Marin and Indian stars Chirag Shetty and HS Prannoy.
None of this would have been possible for Naishaa without the support of her family and she vouches for that.
"They have been very supportive and my dad took a transfer to Hyderabad because of my training at Gopichand Academy.
In Mumbai, Naishaa trains at the Bombay Gymkhana and she has three coaches Rajan Samant, Chetan Bhandarkar and Anand Bhaskar.
Naishaa recently competed at some Futures series tournaments and she is happy with her performance.
" Recenly I took part in two or three Futures series and these were senior tournaments and in one I reached in the semis. I have qualified for the main draws and performing in seniors it is really difficult but I’m coping up,'' Naishaa concluded.
