Young shuttler Tasnim Mir on Wednesday became the first Indian to claim the world No 1 ranking in the under-19 girls singles in the latest BWF junior rankings.
The 16-year-old Mir jumped three places to reach the top position in the junior world rankings in the women’s singles category with 10,810 points.
With this achievement, Tasnim has managed to do something which has never been achieved by any Indian girl, including two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu and London bronze winner Saina Nehwal.
The BWF Junior rankings started in 2011 and by then, Saina didn’t make the cut for being a junior while Sindhu was a World No 2 in the Juniors during her U-19 days.
In Boys singles, three shuttlers Lakshya Sen, Siril Verma and Aditya Joshi had become the world no 1.
Tasnim, who hails from Gujarat, has won 4 junior international tournaments, with 3 of them Bulgarian Junior Championship, Alpes International, and Belgian Junior coming in 2021.
Tasnim was part of India’s campaign at the Thomas and Uber Cup held late last year in Denmark and says it had a huge impact on her game.
Tasnim has been training under Indonesian coach Edwin Iriawan at the Assam Badminton Academy in Guwahati for the last four years.
Tasnim got her first lessons on badminton from her father Irfan Mir, who is a badminton coach and also ASI in Mehsana police.
Tasnim, whose younger brother Mohd Ali Mir, a Gujarat state junior champion, also trains with her in Guwahati, has been an achiever right from her young days.
She won the national junior champion (U-19) at the age of 14 and also claimed the national crown in the under-13, under-15 and under-19 girls’ singles categories.
Tasnim also won U-15 singles and doubles titles at the All-India Sub-Junior ranking tournaments in Hyderabad and Nagpur in 2018.
At the 2019 World Junior Championships in Russia, she could not go past the round of 32 but returned to win the title at the Asian U-17 & U-15 Junior Championships the same year in Indonesia.
She also emerged victorious at the President Cup Nepal Junior International Series 2020 in Kathmandu.
