Nagpur
Talented city shuttler Nikkita Joseph launched her campaign in style in the Yonex-Shera-Roza-Bty Junior International Badminton tournament which began at Bangkok, Thailand on Monday.
The 13-year-old won both her U-15 and U-17 girls singles matches in straight games on her international debut.
In the U-17 girls singles, Nikkita overcame the late challenge from Nattana Suksan of Thailand 21-17, 21-19 in 22 minutes. After winning the first game easily, Nikkita was stretched in the second game but managed to win the game 21-19 to close the match.
Later in the day, Nikkita accounted for another local girl to enter the second round of U-15 girls singles. Nikkita, a Standard VIII student of Modern School, Koradi, thumped Thanyapichacha Chitchidi 21-13, 21-13 in 23 minutes.
Nikkita, a trainee of Chetak Khedikar, will now take on Chinese opponents in the second round in both the singles on Tuesday. While Nikkita will lock horns with Yuxin Gao in the U-17 girls singles, she will face Xiaoyue Yuan in the U-15 girls singles.
Last year, Nikkita was ranked sixth in India in the U-13 girls singles. The pair of Nikkita and Manya had done well to reach the second spot in the U-13 girls doubles in the BAI rankings.
