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What this adds up to is that, away from school, rising Edinburgh badminton star Deepti Vijayakumar, 14, has no problem hitting the right notes or even counting career titles which stand at 70+ since 2017.

The latest success for the student at St George’s School, who have bestowed on her a second successive Sports Performance Award for international representation, was the under-15 (2008) singles at the Scottish National Championships in Glasgow. Deepti also retained her girls doubles title (with Qing Yang Xiao) and finished runner-up in the mixed (partnering Tushar Senthilrajaram).

It really is a vintage time for junior badminton locally and nationally with Qing Yang Xiao No 1 in the 2009 age-group and Tushara Senthilrajaram topping the 2010 rankings. Also, Lingyun Xiao is the boys’ 2008 group champion in parallel with Deepti.

Deepti trains as a member of the Scottish junior squad and her national titles capped a year to remember, which also featured a Scottish Secondary Schools singles gold, captaincy of a Scotland team which claimed a silver medal at the international under-15 quads in Dublin and a place in the under-15 European Championships in Ibiza.

Past achievements include national titles in singles and doubles at under-11 and under-13’s while, at the 2021 quads event, she was given the Edna Gibbs Award by Badminton Scotland for outstanding performance

From the age of nine, Deepti has been training with the Edinburgh Badminton Academy and dad Sethu, professor of Robotics at Edinburgh University, gives that organisation massive credit for his daughter’s on court development.

Says Sethu: “Deepti was introduced to badminton while accompanying elder sister, Maithili, now 18, to the academy.

“Founded in 2013 by Greg Broadbent and Britt Ashton and growing from the modest beginnings of a summer camp with just seven players, to currently coaching over 600 active members across 11 venues in the captial, the academy really is a tremendous asset to the local sporting community. It is a not-for-profit social enterprise and inspires people of all abilities and ages to play sport.”

Most recently on court Deepti was part of the Lothian team who travelled to Newcastle and won the under-19 senior Anglo-Scottish team tournament overcoming Northumberland, Cumbria, Lanarkshire and Glasgow. The squad, pictured, comprised Jennifer Feng, Ishbel McCallister, Vibha Raman, Tushara Senthilrajaram, Deepti and Maithili Vijayakumar, Qing Yang Xiao, Richard Adams, Samual Corlett, Laurie Cox, Finlay Jack, Theo Johnston, Ross Macartney and Tushar Senthilrajaram. Alongside the group is coach Irene Blair.

Deepti has fresh challenges in sight, including a trip to the Swedish Open under-17 tournament in Uppsala in late January having spent four days in Denmark with the Scottish senior team training with Scandinavian counterparts to experience different routines.

Meanwhile, Lothian under-14s won the Scottish inter-area team tournament in Glasgow. After wins over Lanark (9-1) and West (6-4), a 5-5 draw with Glasgow was sufficient to see the trophy brought along the M8 by the following squad – Aryan Anyruddhan, Melrick D’Souza, Yingfan Wang, Justin Wong, Amy Hunter, Emily Jobson, Mia Robinson and Ingrid Wang.

It all adds up for Edinburgh's rising teenage badminton star and mathematics ace