Nagpur's rising shuttler Nikkita is ready to compete in Thailand international tournament

Nagpur

There will be one more addition to the list of international badminton players of Nagpur. The 13-year-old Nikkita Joseph will compete in the Yonex-Shera-Roza-Bty Junior International Badminton tournament slated to be held from from April 23 to 29 at Bangkok, Thailand.

It will be Nikkita’s maiden appearance in the overseas tournament. She will participate in three events — Under-15 and Under-17 girls singles and U-15 girls doubles with Manya Avlani of Mumbai.

Nikkita, who trains under experienced city coach Chetak Khedikar, will clash with Thailand opponents in all the three events. She will play against a local girl in the U-17 girls singles on Monday. Later in the day, she will return to the court for U-15 girls singles.

The duo of Nikkita and Manya, who are state toppers, will take on second seeded Thai pair on Wednesday. Last year, Nikkita, a Standard VIII student of Modern School, Koradi, 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.

It was a very good 2017 for Nikkita Joseph. She also won the gold medal in the School Games Federation of India (SGFI) Nationals.

“Nikkita has been doing well in the last couple of years on the state and national circuit. We now want to test her in the international tournament. It is interesting to see how she fares outside the country. Basically, we want to give her exposure so that she becomes a more confident player in future. The confidence of playing the international tournament will help her in the forthcoming home season,” said Khedikar, who is BWF Level 1 coach.

Another city shuttler Malvika Bansod, who is world No. 211 in the women’s singles, was also scheduled to play in the Thailand tourney but has withdrawan to concentrate on domestic season.