Houston-born Disha Gupta aims to carve her niche at Indian Open
It's a tall order for anyone living in the United States to dream of playing with the elites of world badminton, primarily due to lack of quality training partners.
But 19-year-old US-born shuttler of Indian origin Disha Gupta is ready to do the hard yards in order to measure up at the highest level as she gears up for her maiden USD 350,000 Indian Open appearance.
She will be playing a BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament,a first in her nascent international career.
On Tuesday, Disha was busy honing her skills at the practice hall, sparring with budding Indian shuttlers Mugdha Agrey and Vaidehi Choudhari -- both feature in the main draw, with the former slated to take on the formidable PV Sindhu Wednesday.
Disha, who started playing professionally in 2016 as a 16-year-old, has managed to reach the finals of Peru International challenge in 2017.
"I started when I was 10. My dad took me to the club. I had already quit a lot of sports, like basketball, figure skating. So when I played ...