Under-18 Tennis Player, CBSE Topper, CUET 90 Percentile Scorer, Khush Sharma Wants to Play for India

Khush Sharma, an AITA-ranked under-18 tennis player, proved that he is an all-rounder when he emerged as the school topper in the commerce stream in class 12 as well as scored more than 90 percentile in all the subjects in Common University Entrance Exam (CUET) UG examination.

Khush is a student of Army Public School, Noida and he scored 94.8 per cent marks in his CBSE Class 12th results. His All India Tennis Association (AITA) Rank is 10.

When asked how he managed his studies and tennis practice together, he said that he used to wake up early morning and go for tennis practice at Grow Tennis Academy in the Defence Colony from 7 AM to 2 PM and later in the evening used to study for three to four hours every day for the board exams.

Despite his busy schedule, Khush did not join any coaching classes. “My mother is a Charted Accountant so she helped me with accountancy and the Vice President of my school Rama Srinivasan, who is also a Maths teacher, used to take extra classes for me so that I could cope up with my studies,” he said. Khush scored 96 in Accountancy, 91 in Maths, 99 in Business Studies, 93 in Economics, and 95 in English in CBSE board exams.

In the CUET UG examination, he scored 99.3 percentile in Accounts, 97.9 in Business Studies, 97.4 in English, and 90.9 in Economics.

Talking about his experience as a tennis player he says “I have been playing tennis since I was four years old and subsequently became AITA registered player in 2012. Every day, I attend tennis training for 6 hours followed by 2 hours of physical training. Apart from this, I have to follow a strict and specific diet plan along with an hour of meditation and body-reliving exercises.”

“My parents have always been really supportive of my dream as well as my studies. They encourage me to get into sports and they believe that I can be a champion one day,” he adds.

Khush, who is right now training under his coach Gaurav Sharma, has recently won the singles title at AITA championship series 7 under 18 held at Bhatinda and was a runners up in the doubles title at AITA National Series under 18 held in Jalandhar.

Read | Farmer’s Daughter Scores 98.8% in CBSE 12th Despite Financial Hardship, Aims at Becoming an IAS Officer to ‘Giveback’

“There is always a social pressure on being an aspiring sportsperson. People around always have questions. ‘What is the success rate?’ ‘How you will sustain your finances?’  ‘What if nothing great is achieved after so many years of dedicated hard work?’ That is when a positive ecosystem around me helps me to go stronger with firm belief,” Khush said.

When asked about his future plans, Khush informed that he wants to convert his passion for tennis into a career. However, he believes that education is equally important. He has applied for admission at the University of Delhi to pursue his academics in the field of finance.

“For time being, I will continue to accelerate myself in the world of tennis and move on to play internationally whilst going in to complete my academic studies in the world of Socio-Economic Financial world. This would enable me to always have a hand-in-glove situation at any point of time in my life,” he said.

Khush lives with his parents in Noida. His father is a business consultant and his mother a chartered accountant.

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