Badminton: Adita Rao, the shuttler and struggler, stays defiant in pursuit of her goals

There was no great celebration as Adita Rao converted her match point – just a simple fist-pump before she walked over to her kit-bag, packed it up and walked off court. At the badminton hall at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune during the 84th Senior National Championships late February, the 18-year-old asked if she could sit down and immediately started fiddling with the heavy strapping on her right leg. Once she was satisfied, she offered an explanation.

“If I trip or even have a minor twist, I have to go for surgery,” she told Scroll.

“I’m very scared while playing. This is my first tournament after the injury – I haven’t played for two months now. And there’s a lot of pressure in mind because of the injury. Right now, I’m just testing myself to see how capable I am to play in these situations.”

This was just after she won her round of 64 match at the Nationals. Because of the injury and the threat it carried, Rao asserted that she held no expectation from herself at the tournament. Yet she ended up reaching the semifinal, before losing to current world No 43 Aakarshi Kashyap, the eventual runner-up.

This was a dogged, injury-defying attempt to compete. Ironically, it...

Read more