I was determined to win

Karishma Wadkar of Maharashtra produced a brilliant performance to pull off an upset in the finals of the National School Games Badminton Championship,at the Balewadi Stadium recently.

Karishma beat Ruthvika Shivani of Andhra Pradesh 13-21,21-15,24-22 in a thrilling singles encounter to give the state team a 1-0 lead. This is the first time in several meetings that Karishma has managed to get the better of Ruthvika,and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

I was quite nervous at the beginning,since my track record against Ruthvika is not good, an elated Karishma said after the match. I lost the first set because I was nervous and conscious,but in the second I started playing more freely and I was determined to get back into the match,and win, she added. The Mumbai girl was 14-10 down in the third set,but came back brilliantly to tie the game at 14-all. After that,she pursued every point with a dogged determination and the match went right down to the wire. She finally won the match when Ruthvika pulled a backhand wide at 22-23,jumping up and down with understandable excitement. The young shuttler had barely any time to savour her victory,however,as she had a mere ten-minute break before teaming up with Lalita Katre in the doubles rubber against Ruthvika and her partner V Harika. The duo produced an inspired performance to wrap up a comfortable 21-15,21-14 victory,and with it,the Under-14 girls team event title.

Karishma is a Class VII student at the Avantibai Petit High School and has been playing badminton for four years at the Uday Pawar Badminton Academy in Mumbai.

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