Badminton: Tanisha Crasto moved to an alien country and took a step closer to the Paris Olympics

Tanisha Crasto was only 16 when she shifted her base from Dubai to India all alone. Now 20, Crasto along with her women’s doubles partner Ashwini Ponnappa is on the verge of qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The duo – with a 14-year age-gap between the two players – has lit up the badminton World Tour in the last four months with two titles and two runner-up finishes on the circuit.

The pair also pulled off an upset win at the Malaysia Open Super 1000 last week as they beat former world No 1 and two-time world champions Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara 21-19, 13-21, 21-15 en-route their quarter-final finish in Kuala Lumpur.

Their recent exploits have also helped them overtake the more fancied Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand as India’s top ranked women’s doubles pair in the 2024 Race to Paris Olympic Games Qualification Ranking.

But for Crasto, all of that is an afterthought.

“I believe if the Olympics is meant for me, it will come my way,” said Crasto to Scroll.

“I am not really thinking about it [Olympics] right now and to be honest my only goal is to be my best in every tournament that I play and not chase after the thought that I need to play in the...

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