India shuttlers Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi have been impressive lately and have had a definite reason to be joyful amidst the tough times surrounding the world of sports across the globe.

Both shuttlers [Ritika and Simran] have made the breakthrough into the world Top 100 in the women’s doubles ranking.

The Badminton World Federation [BWF] has, however, halted the rankings as it has put on hold all international tournaments till the following month [May] as the duo moved to the 98th position.

Even though they are into their first year in the senior categories, there is the belief that it’s indeed a promising start to their careers.

Before their senior category career, Simran and Ritika dominated the Domestic Junior tournament for five years. They attained the peak when they became winners of the U-19 girl’s double champions at the Junior National Badminton Championship at Rajahmundry in December 2019.

Attaining the top 100 in the world, the shuttlers have now joined the elite group of India pairs. The Indian pairs who occupy the 28th position on the rankings are Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy. The other Indian pairs are among the top 100 are Pooja Dandu- Sanjana Santosh ranked 44th, J Meghana- Poorvisha S Ram ranked 46th, K Maneesha- Rutuparna Panda ranked 54th and Kuhoo Garg – Anoushka Parikh ranked 86th as well.

Ritika and Simran have shown a lot of consistency since 2014 despite the duo not training together. They are placed 6th in the national Badminton Association of India [BAI] rankings.

The duo have been training separately under different coaches. Ritika undergoes her training in Nagpur under Ajay Dayal and Robin Simon while Simran is a member of Thane Badminton Academy.

Ritika couldn’t hide her joy as the 19-year-old admitted that she and her partner [Simran] must train together in the future to build a stronger partnership.

Written by: Olumide Akinnifesi