Vijayawada’s diamond in the rough: how 19-year-old Surya Charishma Tamiri grew up without formal academy training | Badminton News – The Times of India

VIJAYAWADA: It has a unique son-of-the-soil feel – daughter actually. An unknown teenager, with no victories to speak of, made a lasting impression at the Senior Nationals held in the city with her stunning performance. Nineteen-year-old Surya Charishma Tamiri received no formal training at the academies in India’s major badminton centers in the neighboring regions of Vijayawada, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.Go beyond the border with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Instead, the homegrown talent learned the nuances of the game under little-known coaches like Bhaskar and Kiran Mouli and shocked the likes of Unnati Hooda, Rakshitha Sree Santosh Ramraj and Tanvi Patri on her way to claiming the women’s title on the same courts she trains on every day.

Consider this. While Unnati is the only Indian after Saina Nehwal to beat PV Sindhu, 14-year-old Tanvi Patri, who trained in China, is touted as India’s next great shuttler. But all that seemed to mean little for Charishma last week as she defeated Unnati in the quarter-finals in back-to-back matches. In the semi-final, Charishma defeated Rakshitha, who trains at Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad. In the final, the Vijayawada girl defeated Tanvi, who won the Asian under-15 championship gold last year and has been compared to Sindhu for her style and approach.Her cool demeanor and the way she executed her game plan impressed the experts. One of them is DK Sen, coach and father of Lakshya Sen. “It is a good sign that a player has emerged from nothing and a little-known place. I am impressed that she is executing her game plan on the field. She has a cool head and has a great future. However, to excel at international level, she needs to improve her attacking skills,” Sen said.

A senior coach told TOI that raw talent like Charishma is rare and needs to be properly groomed. “I am shocked how someone with no formal training from a big academy can play so well. I hope BAI does not neglect her,” the coach added.‘Cherry’, as she is fondly called by her parents, used to accompany her father to the DRMC badminton courts. Impressed by the five-year-old’s skills, coach Bhaskar took her under his wing. Later, when coach Mouli joined the duo, Cherry quickly began winning district and state championships before excelling in a few ranking tournaments.But her big break came in her own backyard on Sunday. “This is something I dreamed of. Last year I lost in the quarter-finals and winning such a big title at home is like a dream come true for me,” Charishma said, adding that she is confident she will do well with better facilities.“Right now, I have no idea about my future training. But if I get better facilities, I want to train here with my coaches,” she added.