New Delhi: When Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand smashed their way to guarantee themselves a BWF World Championships medal, they ended a 15-year wait in Indian badminton.
“When we won, it was actually a big shocker for everyone. We won a medal in women’s doubles which was unheard of back then. Jwala, playing both women’s and mixed doubles (with V Diju), felt the weight of the challenge, yet the pair quietly plotted their ascent. It was tough back then to block everything and perform. You couldn’t even dream of it. “Getting past the second seeded pair gave us a lot of confidence going into the rounds ahead. “Looking back, the World Championships has always been a very fond memory for me. We not only played well, but the entire journey… I had a wonderful time, enjoyed every single bit of it, which is what makes that medal a lot more special.”
Heading into the 2011 tournament in London, expectation from the Indian pairing was almost non-existent.
“There were no expectations from us even though we won gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi,” Jwala told HT. Ashwini told HT.
Though the unseeded Indian combine had an easy opening outing against Americans Eva Lee and Paula Lynn, overcoming Cheng and Chien was the biggest upset of the tournament. The Indian badminton landscape was vastly different then. That set the path for Jwala and Ashwini to beat Hong Kong’s 11th seeds Tse Ying Suet and Poon Lok Yan in Round 3 and Indonesian 12th seeds Vita Marissa and Nadya Melati in the quarters.
Women’s doubles faced existential threats within the sport, critics labelled the rallies “long and boring”, and the event was even dropped from the Indian Badminton League in 2013 in favour of a second men’s singles match.
