Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand are assured of a World Championships medal but they are not satisfied yet. The Indian pair overcame Chinese resistance, as they came from a game down to beat China’s fourth seeds Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian 16-21, 21-15, 21-13 in Friday’s quarterfinal. In doing so they became the first Indian women’s doubles pair since Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa in 2011 to win a medal at the World Championships. “Ashwini and Jwala have been our idols and we have always set them as the benchmark’
The girls on Friday afternoon were grateful to stand on the shoulders of the badminton greats.
For Treesa, the win was difficult to put into words.”This was really difficult, observing and processing. Really happy we won this. Let’s not stop here.”
China took the opening game and had India under pressure early in the second. Treesa and Gayatri, though, stayed with the match.
“Today was a pretty good match. We were trailing. In the second set it was tricky. We told each other to stay calm,” Gayatri said.
Once the win came after 70 mins, there was a huge- huge sigh of relief. On the court side was father Gopi, giving the hug of joy and release to his daughter who was born two years after he won the All England badminton championships.
And a boisterous crowd inside the IG stadium rose in unison to cheer for the girls. Gayatri chose to include the crowd in their achievement, describing how the crowd played its part too.
“It is teamwork for us. It helped us to achieve this. The crowd was amazing, giving us the positive vibes.”
Treesa zoomed in on how the victory was achieved,
“We asked ourselves to be in the present and stay calm. Be patient to score at the right time, and that helped.”
The Chinese pair had been in the world’s top five, so the dynamic duo knew there would be chances if they could keep the rallies going.
“This pair was also in the top five. We wanted to catch their mistakes. Just be calm and be patient tomorrow,” Gayatri said.
That patience paid off. India took the second game 21-15 and then pulled away in the decider, winning 21-13.
The result brought the first women’s doubles medal at the World Championships since Gutta and Ponnappa’s bronze in 2011.
For Gayatri, the moment was also special because her father, Pullela Gopichand, was courtside as her coach.
“It’s special to have my father as coach. I’m super grateful that he can travel with us and sit beside us in the matches.”
The semi final is against World No. 1 Chinese and no one knows better than Gopi how to break the Chinese wall. He has done it in All England badminton, he has helped Saina and Sindhu do it systematically. Treesa and Gayatri has the secret mantra too from the super coach.
For the giant killers who have brought india a medal in women’s doubles after 15 years, the moment will be made sweeter with an Arjuna Award. A world championship medal will be pretty special too.
Featured Video Of The Day
Spain’s Royal Family Welcomes World Cup Champions To Zarzuela Palace
Topics mentioned in this article
