Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi eye top-50 world rankings by year-end

Reigning national junior doubles champions Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi are aiming to break into the world’s top-50 rankings in the women’s doubles by the end of the year.

The 20-year-old pair of Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi are planning to compete in around ten tournaments this season to improve their world rankings and establish themselves as the premier Indian women’s doubles duo.

After reaching the career-best world ranking of 98 early last year, they have marginally slipped to 107 now. The young Maharashtra combination failed to remain in the top-100 as they didn’t get to play any tournaments due to the COVID-19 situation for over a year now.

However, they will resume their international appearance with the Bulgaria Open in a couple of months time. It will mark their comeback into the international circuit. A winner of several All-India junior and senior ranking tournaments, Nagpur’s Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi of Thane recently had a two-month stint together at the Suchitra Badminton Academy in Hyderabad.

"Training together at Suchitra Academy helped us" - Ritika Thaker

Ritika Thaker admitted they had a chance to play in the prestigious All England Championship in March this year but a lack of training forced them to skip the tournament.

“We are planning to play more international tournaments to gain ranking as we have a particular target in mind at the end of this year. We would again have a short stint at the Suchitra Academy with foreign coaches and mainly to get practice together which we are deprived of because we both stay in different cities,” said Ritika Thaker, who has also done well in the mixed doubles category.

“We intend to play more Super Series like tournaments whenever we can get entries. This year we were eligible to get entry into the All England Championship, but since we thought we were underprepared and not up to the mark, we opted out. Maybe next year we might play there. I hope this pandemic gets over soon and all sports people across the globe will get a chance to showcase their talent again,” said Ritika Thaker, who trains under Robin Simon and Ajay Dayal in Nagpur.

Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi, who have placed sixth in the national BAI rankings, have been consistently brilliant since 2014 despite not training together.

YONEX All England Open Badminton Championships - Day Two

The taller of the two, Simran Singhi, is eager to be back in action sooner rather than later.

“We have been training hard for the last two years and are keen to test ourselves against the best in the world. We are planning to play around 10 international tournaments this year, starting with Bulgarian International in August 2021. Our goal is to upgrade our world rankings to the top-50 by year-end. We have both taken our first shots of the vaccine and hope after the Olympics, badminton season will reopen in full strength and the third wave of the pandemic is restricted,” said Simran Singhi, a member of the Thane Academy.

Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi have been dominating the domestic junior tournaments for the last six years. They reached their peak when they emerged as the Under-19 girls doubles champions at the Junior National Badminton Championship at Rajahmundry in December, 2019.

By entering the top-100 in the world last year, Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi had joined an elite group of Indian pairs. Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy are India’s premier duo with a world ranking of 27.

Simran Singhi enjoyed her training at Suchitra Badminton Academy in Hyderabad and was impressed with the facilities there.

“It is an advantage to stay and train in the same premises. Pradeep Raju Sir and coach Yonathan Dasuki take a personal interest in our training. I have always been blessed to learn from the best coaches,” said Simran Singhi.

Former Indian doubles stars Akshay Devalkar (Thane Academy), Shlok Ramchandran (Goregaon Sports Club, Mumbai) and Yonathan Dasuki and the team at Suchitra have helped Simran Singhi become a doubles specialist.

“It is great to have all support systems like physiotherapy, strength and conditioning, nutrition and mental conditioning under one roof in Hyderabad. Traveling to Mumbai, to me, was the biggest impediment. I had to travel 4-5 hours a day and in this pandemic era, it was quite impossible. We both are planning to have regular stints at the Suchitra Academy for our progress,” said Simran Singhi.