Thriving in balancing act

Bengaluru: Aditya Diwakar is making the most of his five-foot-nine-inch frame.

The 14-year-old, a national-level badminton player, is an integral part of his school’s basketball team. The versatile player has managed to maintain a good balance between both the sports.

“The jump is essential for smashes in badminton. It is also useful in basketball. My school doesn’t have a badminton facility so I am an active basketball player for my school,” says the eighth-grade student of New Horizon Public School (Indiranagar) who took part in the Junior NBA selection trials recently.

Despite the twin interests, Aditya’s first love is badminton, a sport in which he has made encouraging progress in the last couple of years. The youngster’s consistent success in both singles and doubles in State-ranking meets helped him top the U-15 Karnataka doubles ranking.

Last year, Aditya clinched a double, winning the U-16 singles and doubles titles at the 15th Ramesh Padukone-Mehul Sirur Memorial Inter-School Badminton meet. In September, he became the U-15 State champion in doubles. Partnering Goutham M, Aditya clinched the Yonex Sunrise Panchum Badminton Gurukul Karnataka Championship crown that saw him get picked for the State team.

Aditya has made a decent start in the U-17 category, by winning the doubles title with Vaibhav Srinath at the Yonex Sunrise State-ranking tournament at Sindhanur last month.

First coached by Harish Kumar BR at the Hollyhock Badminton academy, Aditya currently trains under Ashok Raman and father Diwakar BS, a technology consultant at Louis Apps, at Domlur Club. “Playing both singles and doubles can be challenging. In doubles, the toughest part is to understand your partners. Once you know their style of play, it becomes easy. But going forward, I will be focusing mainly on singles,” says Aditya.

Aditya, who also thanks his mother Anitha Diwakar, an employee at the Minor Irrigation Department, for her support, turns to music to increase his concentration. “Sometimes you feel demotivated when you don’t win matches and you lose focus. From the last four months, I have been playing piano and it gives me a calming experience,” he says.

World No 1 Kento Momota of Japan is Aditya’s favourite. “He is an attacking player and I love to attack too. Watching Momota play is inspiring because he is usually flawless,” says Aditya.