Treesa-Gayatri: a comeback nobody fathomed

New Delhi: For a pair that arrived at the BWF World Championships unseeded and ranked outside the top 30, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have made the biggest Indian statement of the tournament.Their quarterfinal victory over fourth seeds Jia Yifan and Zhang Shuxian of China on Friday — a comeback from 16-21 down before winning the next two 21-15, 21-13 —  assured hosts their first medal of these World Championships and ended a 15-year wait for an Indian women’s doubles medal at the event. More than that, it was also a remarkable turnaround for a pair that had appeared unlikely to be among India’s medal contenders when the tournament began.Badminton World Championships | Treesa, Gayatri soar high Back in January, Treesa and Gayatri were ranked No. 20 in the world but an ankle injury for Treesa in April forced her out for almost three months and sent their ranking tumbling to 58 by June. The enforced break also cost them a seeding and subsequently an easier medal path here.Yet, rather than allowing the setback to derail them, the duo used the period to rebuild and returned to competition, winning the Philippine International Challenge in Manila and arrived with their confidence restored.”We were cutting the rally to multiple layers and then started with the basics,” said their coach B Sumeeth Reddy. “Those are the things that need to be confidently played during the crucial stages. Secondly, in the last month, their pace and stroke quality got better.”That improvement was evident against Japan’s Rin Iwanaga/ Kie Nakanishi in the pre-quarters, where their pace and explosiveness repeatedly unsettled the seventh seeds for a straight-game victory. The transformation was particularly striking in the way Gayatri attacked from the back while Treesa dominated at the net.“You can see this time that Gayatri is smashing really well. She could get a lot of points from back, and Treesa is solid at the net. I think, so that was a major shift this time,” said Sumeeth.Chief coach Pullela Gopichand, too, had worked on sharpening those specific aspects. “Gopi Sir made sure that Treesa’s net game got better, and Gayatri’s backcourt area got stronger,” Sumeeth said.The injury, ironically, also became a period of physical growth for Gayatri, while the pair’s mindset has been equally important. After dropping the opening game against Yifan-Shuxian in the quarterfinals, Treesa remembered the coaches’ message: “They always said like, ‘Just calm down and just be in the present moment.’ I think that really worked today.”Gayatri echoed that approach: “We were constantly telling each other, ‘It’s not over yet, it’s not over yet’ because we had a huge lead in the third set, but we kept telling each other.”Now, with a medal secured and another big challenge awaits in the semifinals in Chinese top seed Liu Sheng Shu/ Tan Ning. The India duo are refusing to look too far ahead.”I think right now just processing this one into the semifinals and being on the podium, but it’s not finished yet. This is not the end. We came here with a goal,” Treesa said.

Source: Deccan Herald