She is a member of the next generation of badminton players who could be flying the colors of the country internationally. She also happens to be Goan. Tanisha Crasto, all of 18, recently won the selection trials for the Thomas Cup, Uber Cup and the Sudirman Cup. She partnered with Rutuparna Panda, another promising player from Odisha. They notched an upset win over India International stars Ashwini Ponappa and Sikki Reddy. They later beat Shikha Gautam / Ashwini Bhat in the finals. She will be travelling to Denmark and Finland to represent the country in these tournaments.
Speaking from Hyderabad where she is currently based at the National centre called the GopiChand Academy, Tanisha spent the entire day practicing hard. This is certainly a far cry from the days when she was introduced to the sport by her father in Dubai. She took to it like a duck to water as they say. By the time she was 13 she won the finals of the doubles tournament at the Bahrain Open and also at the India Club. She has won the singles, doubles and the mixed doubles for the past four years in that tournament. Tanisha said her interest in taking this interest in badminton brought her to Goa. Her focus she said was doubles and mixed doubles. She started participating in local tournaments and started making her mark. She said in her very first tournament she won singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Back then she would play singles and doubles and became the top ranked player in the state and when she started doing well in the ranking tournaments, she did not have to play in the local tournaments.
Training is an important part of an athlete’s life. It starts at 8.30 am and if the morning session is on court then the evening session is in the gym. There are of course days when there are court sessions even in the evening. This schedule is for Monday and Tuesday. Then the next two days will be filled with matches in the morning and the evenings are left free. Saturday is like Wednesday and Sunday is a day of relaxation. They stay on campus and the food provided is usually south Indian fare.
She is also focused on her academics and has just applied to a college in Bengaluru that is popular with athletes because it understands their requirements and in Tanisha’s case they have the best badminton team around. She intends to pursue a BA Honors in Marketing.
Speaking about her victory at the selections, she said they did not think about winning or losing and decided to take it one match at a time. She said they knew they would top the pool if they beat Ashwini Ponappa and Sikki Reddy. She said “We prepared and watched a little bit of their game. We did a lot of planning; we managed our recoveries very well because we were playing very long matches. We are known as an aggressive team and decided to play to our strength but we also decided to stay calm”. She said Pullela Gopichand was always present at the facility giving advice and he was there to give her and her partner advice.
She is looking forward to being part of the team in international tournaments and hopes to one day soon start winning the big ones like the All England and other similar tournaments. Asked if there was anything she would like to say to Goan children interested in taking up the game, she said it was important they followed their dreams and not give up and have faith in themselves. She said if she could make it so could other Goan kids. She however said they would have to be determined and work hard.
Tanisha hopes to make her mark and be known all over the world and one can only hope her dreams come true.
