Kanika punching well above her weight

When most children are fumbling with alphabets in kindergarten,Kanika had already started playing badminton. After playing for nearly six years,in 2008,the Delhi shuttler won the Nationals Badminton Championships held in Cochin,Hyderabad and Chandigarh in the U-10 category and captured the top ranking.

Riding high on confidence,she even notched up the Delhi top spot in an age group higher to her in 2009. Interestingly,she also holds the Delhi No.2 spot in the U-16 category playing doubles.

The shuttler currently practices under the supervision of her father— Narendra Singh,who is also a badminton coach. She explains that she has to focus on her physical workout in order to compete in the higher age group.

Although she has been training in Delhi all this while,she has plans to move to Hyderabad,the hub of badminton.

“I requested my father that I want to train in Hyderabad. Having an idea of the facilities here,he too advised me to move to the Gopichand Academy,” said Kanika.

Meanwhile,the 11 year old is competing in a match in the singles U-19 category. She beat Ishpreet in straight sets. She pocketed the first game 21-3 and the second 21-10 at the 2 nd Delhi State Ranking Badminton Tournament at Punjabi Bagh.

With the Chandigarh Nationals around the corner,she is brimming with confidence to pull victories in the U-13 and U-16 category in this tournament. “It is important to win titles before participating in the Nationals. Till now I am in a good nick but V Harika from Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra’s Shikha could be tough opponents in the Nationals,” added Kanika.

In the other matches of the day,Rohan Kapoor won a thriller of his pre-quarter final in the U-16 singles against Aarush Setia who also happens to be his doubles partner in the same tournament. Even though he claimed the first game by 21-19,he was pushed on the back foot in the second as Aarush won it 21-17.

With both players locked at par,it was Rohan who kept his nerves and took the third game 21-9 to book a quarter final place. Ankit Chikkara also sealed his last 16 spot by outclassing Sahaj 21-2 ,21-3. In the boys U-19,Harshvardhan Bisht beat Utkarsh Arora 21-8 21-8. In the girls U-16,Avni Mehta won a hard fought match against Anu Mishra 21-17 16-21 21-18 while Gauri Asija defeated Deeksha Bhardwaj 21-1,21-3.

Results: Girls Singles U-19: Nidhi Tiwari bt Shambhavi Bajaj 21-15,21-14; Kanika bt Ispreet 21-3,21-10; Sanskriti Chhabra bt Sargam Aggarwal 21-5,21-7; Noor Chatwal bt Lochan 21-11,21-12; Rashmeet Kaur bt Shreya Suri 21-12,21-7; Gauri Asija w/o Isha Das; Shreya Aggarwal bt Shruti Solanki 21-6,21-5; Garima Anand w/o Sana Sawhney; Boys Singles U-19: Ashish Sharma bt Sahil Dilawari 21-8,21-10; Vikas Gupta bt Sahaj Sabharwal 21-14,22-20; Jayank Ahuja bt Gaurav Deswal 21-1,21-7; Gagan Sharma bt Aakash Gupta 21-10,21-4; Nitish Arora bt Kshitiz Anand 21-6,21-4; Harshvardan Bisht bt Utkarsh Arora 21-8,21-8; Boys Singles U-16: Ankit Chikkara bt Sahaj 21-2,21-3; Utkarsh Arora bt Robin Singh 21-14,18-21,21-15; Ryan bt Kushagre 21-17,21-15; Rohan Kapoor bt Aarush Setia 21-19,17-21,21-9; Pranay Arya bt Puneet Valecha 21-12,21-10; Sarthak bt Sushant Manocha 21-14,21-16; Girls Singles U-16: Gauri Asija bt Deeksha Bhardwaj 21-1,21-3; Shivika Nehra bt Ashmita Bhudhiraja 21-11,21-8; Ishita bt Garima 21-5,21-3; Avni Mehta bt Anu Mishra 21-17,16-21,21-18; Sumedha bt Tavleen Kaur 21-3,21-2; Himani Sehgal bt Simran Pathania 21-5,21-7; Khushboo Chaudhary bt Trisha 21-7,21-9.