New Delhi, Feb 15 (PTI) Precious by name and ferocious by nature, Indian badminton seems to have welcomed a promising new star in 17-year-old Anmol Kharb who has no hesitation in declaring that she sees herself as the next big thing after dismantling a Chinese opponent in her first major international outing.

The youngster from Faridabad is an average teenager off the court, vivacious, chatty, and carefree. But the moment she steps inside her field of play, Anmol is as fierce a competitor as any seasoned pro on the circuit, something that China's Lou Yu found out the hard way in their Badminton Asia Team Championship match on Wednesday.

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"I want to win medals and titles for India and if I can practice more and work harder, I can fill that gap. I see myself as that player (next big thing in women's singles)," asserted Anmol in an interview to PTI from Shah Alam, Malaysia.

Her confidence does not seem misplaced. On Wednesday, Anmol walked in with the tie against China poised at 2-2, a massive pressure situation for a teenager, one would say, but she showed that she was up for it.

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"It was a good match. The first set was tough but in the second I made too many mistakes. I couldn't control the shuttle. I was down but I focussed on just keeping the shuttle inside and attack and I am happy I could pull off the match," said the reigning national champion.

She was quite critical of her performance but for former national coach Vimal Kumar, Anmol was the star of the tie, in which two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu had returned from injury.

"This girl reminds me of young Saina Nehwal -- fearless, gritty, determined," he declared on Wednesday.

The comparisons with Saina are not new. Anmol's no-holds-barred approach does bring back memories of a young Saina, who shattered the Chinese hegemony in world badminton. Coincidentally, both hail from Haryana, although Saina made Hyderabad her base.

Anmol is flattered by the comparisons but she is also clear about wanting to carve her own niche.

"I have been following her for the last 5-6 years. I have learnt from her strokes and variation. My game is similar in some ways to Saina didi. But she has a very distinct style and I have my own way of playing," she said.

"I also have an attacking style and I have learnt everything from what coaches taught me. I feel really good when people compare me with her. I don't feel any pressure. It is good that people are talking about me like that."

Anmol came into the limelight after wining the senior national championships last year but comparisons with Saina began much earlier.

As she hopped from one event to another, coaches would speak about the resemblance her game bore with the London Olympics bronze medallist.

"She always had an attacking game and the areas that she would attack or her strokes and court coverage and body language always brought comparisons with Saina," her father Devender Singh, who is a lawyer and a former national Kabaddi player, said.

"Whenever she played at the sub-junior or junior nationals or All India rankings, coaches would say that she looks and plays like Saina."

For all those comparisons, badminton was not Anmol's first calling. She loved speed skating as a kid and even won two national titles.

"She is god gifted. She did well in skating too but it is not an Olympic sport, there was no scope and there were too many injuries. She soon started picking up badminton and has been pursuing it since 2016," her mother Rajbala Kharb recalled.

As a seven-year-old, Anmol won the first district event that she participated in. It brought instant her popularity and piqued her interest in the sport.

She started her badminton journey by training for almost three years at the Dayanand Public School in Faridabad before coming under the tutelage of an Indonesian coach for about a year. But then COVID struck and everything stopped.

Once normalcy returned, Anmol won the All India sub-junior under-17 title in Hyderabad in 2022, before claiming the U-19 crown in North Zone Inter State and Open championship in Jammu. She also won the titles in All India Junior Ranking in Rajasthan, Panchkula, Hyderabad and Jaipur last year.

The crowning moment, however, was when she claimed the senior national title in December at Guwahati. She has moved on from that.

"I will be focussing on playing more BWF events such as International challengers this year and hope to break into the top 100 by the end of the season," she said of her immediate goals.

And for that she already has a plan in place.

"In my training, the focus is on my speed and any correction in strokes which might be needed. I have an attacking game. I depend on power and I like to get points with my attack but I need to work on my control a lot more," she stated.

"My attack is superior than my defence, which I need to strengthen."

Indian badminton would surely be rooting for that.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)