NAGPUR:
Ritika Thaker
added another feather in her cap by clinching a berth in the
Under-19 Indian badminton
squad on Friday.
The talented city shuttler will represent the junior Indian team in the
Yonex Dutch Junior Grand Prix
badminton tournament which will be held at Haarlem, Netherlands, from March 1 to 5. It is for the first time, Ritika has made it to the U-19 team. Earlier on couple of occasions, she represented India in the U-15 and U-17 teams.
According to sources in the
Badminton Association of India
(
BAI
), the junior team will play two back-to-back tournaments in Europe for giving youngsters the much-needed international exposure.
Sixteen-year-old Ritika will play two events for India in the Dutch Open. In the U-19 girls doubles, Ritika and Simran Singhi of Mumbai Suburban will try to extend their dream domestic run at the international level too.
In the recently held Junior Nationals at Udipi (Karnataka), Ritika and Simran had played the U-19 girls doubles semis. Ritika will partner Krishna Priya Garaga of Telangana in the U-19 mixed doubles.
Ritika and Simran are the only two players selected from Maharashtra in the Indian junior squad. Ritika, a Standard X student of CDS School, trains under Ajay Dayal and Robin Simon.
There are two pairs each for the doubles and five singles players in the Indian squad. The team was picked on the basis of their current BAI rankings and performance in the last year’s various All India Ranking tournaments.
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