She started playing with an awkward game in front of her Bandra house, at the age of 10. Now, after 30 years, Deanne Rodrigues is an undisputed queen of the badminton field, in the 35+ and 40+ Master’s category.
Deanne has already won the 35+ Women’s Doubles Title and Mixed Doubles Runner Up Title in 2013. Then, she won the 35+ Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles Titles in 2015 and now she has claimed the 35+ Mixed Doubles Title and a 40+ Women’s Doubles Runner Up Title. In the W/D finals , she lost by a whisker, after holding 3 match points with the match score reading 22-20, 20-22, 20-22 at the 40th Veteran Nationals at Coimbatore, which concluded recently.
Winning these 6 National Titles wasn’t easy for this fiery Bandra lady, who plays with a big heart with eversmiling face. In every National championship, she played with different partners . In 2013 she played with with Neesha Springet and Vilas Kuwale, 2015 with Naheed Divecha and Upendra Fadnis and in the current year with Supriya Devgun and Sameer Bhagwat.
Her day to day Work and domestic issues, had kept this Bandra wonder away from her favourite sport, all through her twenties and was first seen at the Veteran Nationals’ only in 2013. But, soon she made her presence felt.
Spreaking abot her consistent performance, Mr. Murlikrishna, Ex-Panel Coach for Badminton, London Olympic says, “I saw Deanne for the first time in 2013 Veteran Nationals at Mumbai. She has enormous will power and a hard hit. I instantly fell in love with her game and fight to the end attitude.”
Needless to say, Deanne already has over 50 trophies in her showcase and the numbers are adding up every year. These include state (including a triple crown in Jalgaon), corporate, district and inter-club tournaments.
Compliments are also showered upon her , by other well Known people connected with the game of badminton.
“Deanne is a combination of aggression and effective defense. This complements my style of game and allows us to take calculated risks. She is a good motivator with a never let go attitude. I think we make a solid team”, testifies the mild mannered Sameer Bhagwat of Pune.
“She has great strokes, but it is her attitude that sets her apart. She really is a total tigress on court ready to pounce on a weak return every time!” Says T. Maran, PBL and India Coach.
Neesha Springet, with whom she won the 35+ Women’s Doubles in 2013 Nationals in Mumbai and later that year reached the Quarter Finals of World Championship at Ankara says, “Deanne loves badminton so much that she has tattooed a shuttle cock on her shoulder. And her love for the game shows, because she is even willing to endure and conquer pain to win.”
Indeed, it was just a month before the 2015 Nationals in Dharamsala that an unfortunate bike accident left her foot badly burnt and swollen. Till a week before the championship, she could not fit her foot into her beloved badminton shoes. But the wounds bowed down to her spirit and healed just in time. Deanne went to the championship with hardly a week of training and won some incredibly close matches and returned with a Double Crown.
“The World Master’s Tournament is a bi-annual event and this year there is not one scheduled, however, I am looking forward to the World Championship in 2017 which will be held for the first time in India. It will be in Kochi and I just love Kerala. I hope Kerala loves me back and the people cheer me enough to win a World Championship medal”, says the indomitable lady.