Week 40 - ITF (W25) Brisbane, Australia Hard

DF · Tennis legend

Week 40 - ITF (W25) Brisbane, Australia Hard

ROSAMUND · Futures level

I had a look at rankings for 30th September in the race to Shenzen and how many tournaments our players have appeared in. As pointed out about Naiktha at least being fit she has played in 26 which is the most of any of our players. The next most is Heather with 25 and then Maia Lumsden with 21.

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Michael D wrote:
I see there is a Roopa Bains (Born 2002) who is playing here as well this week in the qualifying singles and doubles. She must be Naiktha's sister, and i note she is playing under the Aus flag still.

I would agree with this sisters' comment. Naiktha Kaur Bains was born in Leeds, December 1997 with mother's maiden name Dhinsa. Roopa Kaur Bains was born in Leeds, October 2002 with mother's maiden name Dhinsa. Found from www.ancestry.co.uk

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Great digging. And intriguing.

The Yorkshire Post claims that Naihtka's family is Naithka, her dad Gurnake, her mum Harjit and brother Gurpaal.

As said, another forum states that Roopa is the little sister of Santokh Bains and that they are cousins of Naiktha.

Now, of course, if they were cousins it'd be perfectly normal for their mothers to both have the same maiden name as they'd both be sisters.

But that wouldn't explain them having the same surname now, which implies that it's their fathers that are brothers.

No idea....

mdewey · Junior player

Coup Droit wrote:
Great digging. And intriguing.

The Yorkshire Post claims that Naihtka's family is Naithka, her dad Gurnake, her mum Harjit and brother Gurpaal.

As said, another forum states that Roopa is the little sister of Santokh Bains and that they are cousins of Naiktha.

Now, of course, if they were cousins it'd be perfectly normal for their mothers to both have the same maiden name as they'd both be sisters.

But that wouldn't explain them having the same surname now, which implies that it's their fathers that are brothers.

No idea....

I think Sikh names are more complex than that and I suspect Bains is what we might call in English a clan name so the fathers might be only quite distantly related.

Michael D · All-time great

mdewey wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
Great digging. And intriguing.

The Yorkshire Post claims that Naihtka's family is Naithka, her dad Gurnake, her mum Harjit and brother Gurpaal.

As said, another forum states that Roopa is the little sister of Santokh Bains and that they are cousins of Naiktha.

Now, of course, if they were cousins it'd be perfectly normal for their mothers to both have the same maiden name as they'd both be sisters.

But that wouldn't explain them having the same surname now, which implies that it's their fathers that are brothers.

No idea....
I think Sikh names are more complex than that and I suspect Bains is what we might call in English a clan name so the fathers might be only quite distantly related.

Just have a look at pictures of the two then try and tell me they are not closely related... Cousins as we understand it, I can accept, more distant I'd be inclined to say no (and I'm not disagreeing with you on the principle of Sikh names being clan names, but in this case the relationship is obviously relatively close).

On the origin of the name, since Bains is also a northern English/ Scottish surname, it is a Punjabi Jat surname specifically (they are Sikh but can also be of Hindu and even Muslim faiths), and the meaning of the surname was that it was originally a word for (water) buffalo, which traditionally were used a lot for pulling ploughs in rice cultivation... Yes, the Jats were traditionally an agricultural community.

Tennpar · Strong Club Player

I'd heard they were cousins..

ROSAMUND · Futures level

Tennpar wrote:
I'd heard they were cousins..

On further inspection would agree with this comment. Didn't realise how complex Sikh family history is. The men all have the name Singh somewhere and the girls Kaur which is the second name of both Naiktha and Roopa. However did discover that Naiktha's mother and Roopa's mother are sisters. Harjit Dhinsa (Naiktha's mother ) was born in Wolverhampton in 1969 and Parmjit Dhinsa(Roopa's mother)was born in Wolverhampton in 1970 and have the same mother Balbir Kaur. Both Naiktha and Roopa were born in Leeds. Perhaps if Naiktha has some success and gets to the stage of media interviews(i.e radio and TV) we might find out more about the family.