Three shuttlers from a family in action

Eshan who is about two years younger than Parssa is a senior state champion in Maharashtra.

In the men’s pre-quarters today,Eshan had to face defeat at the hands of a much more experienced opponent Anup Sridhar (seed 6) but has made it to the men’s doubles quarter-finals as the opponent pair was disqualified.

Fourteen-year-old Sara Naqvi is their paternal uncles daughter. She has the distinction of being the under-13,under-16,under-19 and the senior state champion in the same year—2006. The Bareilly girl has been a quarter-finalist in the in the Sub-Junior Asian Badminton Championship 2009.

In the Modi badminton,seventh seeded player Trupti Murgunde beat Sara 21-9,21-15 in the in her first round match on Wednesday.

Sara’s father Azhar Naqvi said,“ I used to play hockey and football. At first,I took Sara and and son Arsalan who is 11 months younger than her for training in swimming and gymnastics but then I realised that their real interest lay in badminton so they took to badminton as their major game. Arsalan too has done me proud by being the Under-13 National Champion in the year 2008.”

Presently Sara is training at the UP Badminton Academy,Lucknow and resides in the hostel there. Both Sara and Parsha feel that the Grand Prix exposure at Lucknow will help them in grooming their skills further.