All you need to know about Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand

The duo became the first Indian doubles pair to reach the semi-final of the All England Open.

Indian women’s doubles shuttlers Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have drawn a lot of attention after their very recent stint at the All England Open.

They became the first Indian women’s doubles pair to reach the semi-final of the prestigious event. Both the shuttler have been paired for roughly a year now but have enjoyed some great success so far.

Background

Gayatri Gopichand, 19, is the daughter of former badminton player Pullela Gopichand whereas her partner, Treesa Jolly’s father is a former physical education teacher. The latter belonged to Kannur, Kerela.

Gayatri had also played singles in her career. She won silver at the South Asian Games 2019 and had contested in many national events as a singles player.

Treesa on the other hand dominated both women’s singles and doubles in the world junior circuit but won more tournaments in the latter discipline. She was a bronze medalist in the U-19 International Junior Grand Prix held in Germany. The young gun was also the highest-ranked Indian shuttler in the junior women’s doubles discipline.

How did the duo come into being?

Although Gayatri also had a considerable specialization in singles, she decided to focus only on doubles. Soon after she partnered with Treesa and both of them found themselves as the perfect match for each other.

While Gayatri took control over the net, Treesa showered the attack from the baseline. Their impeccable blend soon became the benchmark of their extraordinary performances.

Major successes as a pair

In 2021, the duo competed at the Welsh International Challenge and had a superb tournament, finishing as runner-up. They were up against the French pair of Margot Lambert and Anne Tran in the final and gave it their all but lost out with a scoreline of 20–22, 21–17, 14–21.

The pair once again sailed into the final of the Polish International challenge and had to face their previous opponents where they also finished as runner-up losing out to their previous opponents 10-21, 18-21.

It was finally at the India International Challenge where the young sensational pair eased through the finals and lifted the trophy after beating their compatriots Tanisha Crasto and Rutuparna Panda in hard-fought straight games, 23-21, 21-14.

The Indian pair started 2022 on a grand note. They won silver at the Syed Modi Championship which was also their first world tour medal. Soon after, they won the Odisha Open 2022 convincingly.

Their recent stint at the All-England was a cherry on the cake. They became the first Indian to reach the semi-finals of the prestigious tournament. On their way, the sprung a surprise on the World no.2 pair of . The duo had also represented India at the Thomas and Uber Cup in 2021.

Possible areas of improvement

Both the players are pretty young. Thus, they’ll need a fair amount of mindset development as they play against higher-ranked players in the upcoming tournaments. Badminton has often seen young players creating huge upsets in higher grade tournaments. But when it comes to finals or semi-finals, there is always a hesitancy within them to perform well.

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also seemed to go through the same. As they played the initial tournaments, it seemed as if they had nothing to lose. But, when the duo contested the All England Open semi-final, they seemed to be falling under enormous levels of expectations and pressure.

Both Gayatri and Treesa showed daring defensive games against all the pairs they played against in the All England Open but they found difficulties in proportionating it with their natural attacking game. They need to be in sync when they switch between defensive and attacking positions. If they improve their round-the-court movement, then that might well pose a great threat to even the best pair in the world.

What lies ahead ?

The level of play shown by Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly exhibited that there is no possibility of a lack of commitment or motivation from them in the future. Since their highly competitive discipline has a tough ask, their confident display in the past few months has given glimpses of the shining future which lies ahead of them. A destructive combination of attack and net game, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have courageously announced their arrival on the world circuit.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.