Mysha Omer Khan, a natural left-hander, started playing badminton right-handed because her sister, Taabia, was smashing everything with her right hand at the junior circuit in Dubai.
But Mysha fell out of love with badminton in 2018 and turned to gymnastics.
The allure of the badminton court drew her to the sport again when Taabia started winning tournaments.
While her elder sister’s exploits inspired her to pick up the racquet again, this time Mysha made a decision — she would only play with her left-hand.
It was a decision that has now yielded great results. And the greatest of all the results came last week at the prestigious All England Junior Badminton Championships in Birmingham.
The 15-year-old clinched the singles title with an emphatic straight sets win over Suneri Chinthalapati of the US in the final.
It was the first singles title of her life, having won several doubles titles with Taabia, who is also an accomplished singles player at the junior level.
The maiden singles title could not have been sweeter for Mysha as it came at the All England, one of the biggest tournaments in world badminton.
“I am really happy because this was my first title in singles, I have won a few in doubles. But winning the first in singles is really big and especially since it came at the All England, which is such a big tournament, I am really, really happy,” Mysha told the Khaleej Times over the phone from London.
“I was very confident, I felt like I could win this tournament. The confidence level was high because I trained very hard for more than a month to improve my singles game.”
The Grade 11 student at Indian Academy Dubai also finished runners-up in doubles with Taabia in what was a memorable outing for UAE’s young shuttlers.
Taabia also won mixed doubles gold with Bharath Latheesh who finished third in boys’ singles as the UAE finished the tournament with two gold, one silver and one bronze medal.
“It feels really good because globally people don’t know much about badminton in the UAE,” Mysha said.
“When we go for tournaments abroad, they don’t expect much from us. So it’s wonderful to have these wins, we are showing them now that we can also play badminton at a high level,” she added before acknowledging Dubai’s role in their growth.
“I think the training facilities in Dubai are really good, a lot of good badminton academies and coaches. They have played a big role in the development of the young players.”
Mysha, who trains six hours a day, now has set her sights on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“I want to play the Olympics in the future. I am aiming for the 2028 Olympics,” she said.
“It will be a great honour to represent the UAE in the Olympics, hopefully I can qualify for both singles and doubles.”
The shy teenager then opened up about her biggest inspirations on the badminton court.
“I love An Se-Young (22-year-old South Korean sensation who won the singles gold at the Paris Olympics) and Carolina Marin (2016 Olympic champion and three-time world champion),” she said.
“I have watched Carolina since I was small. She is very aggressive. I really like her style of play. She is a left-handed, So I learn a lot of things for her.
“And An, she is the best player now. For someone so young, it’s unbelievable how good she is. I hope to meet them both someday in my life. I want to ask them how they have reached this high level in badminton.”
All champion athletes make a lot of sacrifices to reach the top, and Mysha is ready to do everything to realise her potential.
Her father, Omer, even hired a nutritionist to help her get the best guidance.
“It has helped me and my sister a lot. We know what we need to eat to be at our peak fitness,” Mysha said.
“We follow the nutritionist’s chart six days a week. Of course, it’s a lot of sacrifice as well, we can’t eat chocolates, nothing sweet.”
Mysha won’t mind the lack of sweets on her plate as long as she keeps getting the sweetest taste of victory on the court in the biggest tournaments.