It had been a far from ideal year for Treesa Jolly and P Gayatri Gopichand. Since the end of the Tokyo Olympics, the duo was the country’s top women’s doubles pair, slowly rising up the rankings but favourites to qualify for the Paris Games.
But Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa decided to join hands in 2023 and give their partnership of youth and experience a try. They not just clicked by winning many tournaments but also displaced Treesa and Gayatri as the country’s highest ranked pair, qualifying for Paris.
So near yet missing out on the Olympics – a dream for any athlete – was a tough pill to swallow for the 21-year-olds. “It was quite sad,” says Treesa. But the two decided to take the disappointment in their stride. “We realised we will go through this kind of challenges and that there were a lot of tournaments where we need to perform. We didn’t give up and just started training every day, learning lots of things, what we needed to improve, and those aspects.”
To up their game, the pair changed its nutrition intake. The duo had more gym sessions and focussed on muscle strengthening. The duo felt the changes physically with results also improving. “We improved a lot, be it combination-wise or stroke-wise, how we approached the game, a lot has changed,” said Treesa.
Post the Olympics, Treesa and Gayatri reached the semi-finals at the $210,000 Macau Open, beating some top pairs. Last month, Treesa and Gayatri clinched their biggest title to date, winning the Syed Modi India International in Lucknow.
The Super 300 crown not only elevated them to a career-best ranking of world No.13, it also helped them qualify for the elite BWF World Tour Finals that will commence in Hangzhou on Wednesday. They will be the only ones to represent India in the $2.5 million event. This will be India’s first entry in the year-end event since 2022, and the first women’s doubles pair in the competition since 2021.
“It felt really nice (to win a tournament), especially to win at home. It’s been some journey. We played some really good pairs and I’m glad we could win this one. In the World Tour Finals, I’m just looking forward to playing all the top pairs and experience the exposure. I’m really excited, I’m going to enjoy it,” said Gayatri, who is supported by the Welspun Super Sports Women Programme.
Though they have improved a lot, they know it is a tough path ahead if they are to break into the world top 10 and win tournaments regularly.
“There are a lot of important tournaments next year and we’re looking forward to winning a few more BWF World Tour titles and playing against the top pairs again. Looking forward to learn. Physically, it is not easy playing against Japanese and Koreans whose endurance levels are really high. They are all very fit and can play for longer hours,” said Gayatri, daughter of chief national coach Pullela Gopichand.
“They have the strengths and we have ours. I feel Indians in general are very smart on court. We know how to take points. But not just endurance, we also look to improve everything in general, from our on-court movement to strokes.”
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