New Delhi: Throughout her young career, Devika Sihag has always kept a low profile. Even when she won the National Championship in December 2024 and found success in International Challengers over the last couple of years, the 20-year-old just went about doing things her own way.
That’s how she is, someone who just believes in doing her job on court and moving on to her next assignment. That’s exactly what happened in Bangkok too. After her opponent, Malaysian Goh Jin Wei, retired from the Thailand Masters final, Devika barely celebrated on collecting the biggest title of her career, just about managing a smile for the photographers on the podium. For Devika, the job in Bangkok was done with the next event awaiting — Azerbaijan International, which starts in Baku on Tuesday.
“She is a very soft-spoken girl and not overly aggressive in nature. The way she conducted herself after winning… she was not too overly excited. She was very calm and focused. It was good to see her doing that. That is very important,” said U Vimal Kumar, Devika’s childhood coach.
Hailing for Haryana, Devika was 12 when she was scouted and inducted into the Centre of Badminton Excellence (formerly Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy) in Bengaluru in 2017 and quickly rose through the ranks in the junior categories. At 172 cm, she was among the taller kids at the sub-junior level then at juniors.
But at the same time she developed an issue in her patella, commonly known as kneecap, which started causing pain during her teenage years. “It persisted because as you get older, the rigours increase and the intensity goes up,” said Vimal, currently a national selector.
But the problem also dealt a blow to Devika’s confidence. She started struggling on-and-off with knee issues but thankfully the doctors assured Devika and her team that there was no reason to worry, that the issue could easily be controlled and that the pain “will go”.
Over the years, her team has been able to manage the issue which also gave Devika her confidence to perform on court.
After performing at the national level, the young shuttler went international in 2022, immediately reaching the business end of junior tournaments. After one more year on court, Devika reached the finals of four International Challengers in 2024, winning two. She capped it off with a National title in December 2024.
That made a landmark moment for Devika as it gave her the opportunity to join the national camp in Bengaluru where she has been training with her idol and former world champion PV Sindhu and her coach Irwansyah Adi Pratama for the last six months.
“I always get super excited when my training partners do well,” said the two-time Olympic medallist. “Her dedication has been incredible to witness up close. She’s worked very closely with my team on strength and conditioning, and I’ve personally seen her game grow, mature, and evolve step by step. This win is a reflection of the discipline, hard work, and belief she has shown every single day.”
Sparring with the likes of Sindhu made a massive impact on her game, increasing her confidence levels. Devika is particularly brilliant at attacking from the back of the court with deceptive strokes and that was seen many times during the Thailand Masters where she also ousted top seed and local favourite Supanida Katethong in the quarters.
Her clears from the back regularly caught especially the shorter players off guard who handed short returns only for Devika to kill them up front. The 20-year-old revolves her game around very sharp half-smashes which she uses very judiciously.
“But she only persists with half smashes. So we have been telling her to use her hard smash as well. That’s the finishing stroke which young Indian women players lack. That is something She should look at using. That is what I have been trying to drill into her,” says former national coach Vimal.
“The approach to the net also needs to get better. If she can get to the net early she can be very effective because she has good flicks. She is quite tricky to read. Her core has to get stronger. She has lacked strength and stability. But she has been working hard at it.”
But the Thailand Masters crown — a Super 300 event — will give her the confidence and belief to do better in future and maintain consistency. With the victory, the current world No.63 will likely enter the top 50 soon which will give her the motivation to build her strength and continue to perform at an even higher level.
“I am very happy and excited to play more tournaments ahead. I’ve played very good matches here and learnt a lot. I’ll implement them in my game and rectify my mistakes,” said Devika, before catching a flight for Baku.
