Young Treesa, Gayatri target the next level at Tokyo World Championships

Unexpected is a word Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have been hearing and experiencing often in 2022.

It began in January when the pair unexpectedly reached its first final on the BWF World Tour at the Syed Modi India International in Lucknow. They lost the final, but made amends by winning the Odisha Open a week later in Cuttack, their first World Tour title.

Two months later, the 19-year-olds were chilling in Birmingham knowing they wouldn’t be playing at the All England Open, being fourth in the list of reserves. As luck would have it, Jolly and the daughter of chief national coach Pullela Gopichand found themselves in due to multiple withdrawals.

Sheer grit, and some luck, unexpectedly pushed them into the semi-finals of the $1 million tournament—they beat World Championships silver medallists and second seeds Lee So-hee and Shin Seung-chan of Chinese Taipei in the quarter-finals—becoming the first Indian pair to do so in the category.

“All England Open was an unexpected entry. We were just happy to play such a prestigious tournament. We played freely and just enjoyed the game, which I think helped us reach the semi-finals,” said Jolly.

The beginning

For a pair which only teamed up in September 2021 and entered the rankings at No 433, Gopichand and Jolly have risen rapidly in 11 months to No 37, becoming the second-best Indian pair behind No 25 Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy.

Both had initially focused on singles before shifting focus to doubles. National coach and former international Arun Vishnu saw the playing style of the teenagers matched. After a discussion, he made them play together.

The pairing clicked immediately. They reached the finals of three lower tier events in 2021, winning one before the success early in 2022. They delivered another “unexpected” result when they beat Ponnappa and Reddy—they won bronze at the 2018 Gold Coast CWG—in the trials to be selected for the Birmingham Games.

“We do have a lot of youngsters up and coming. They (Jolly and Gopichand) are just about 19. It’s kind of amazing that they have such a long way to go and the kind of support doubles is getting; we’ve never had that in the past,” said Ponnappa, who with Jwala Gutta won India’s only World Championships doubles medal, bronze, in 2011.

The mixed team silver and doubles bronze at the Commonwealth Games has boosted Gopichand and Jolly.

“I was very happy to first be a part of the Commonwealth Games team and then with our performance. In the individual event where we had to play the semi-finals, we played well but towards the end (of the match) we couldn’t (finish the game in our favour),” said Gopichand. “We just wanted to give our best and enjoy ourselves. We didn’t know where it would take us.”

Their next target is the Tokyo World Championships, which starts on Monday. They will face Malaysia’s Low Yeen Yuan and Valeree Siow, who they beat in their only meeting at the Syed Modi India International in January, in the opening round.

If they win, they will be next up against another familiar Malaysian pair, who they faced twice at the CWG. Though they fought hard, they lost both matches in Birmingham to world No 11 Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan, making it three straight losses to them.

“We want to perform well. That’s the only aim,” said Jolly, adding that their target is qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics by breaking into the world’s top 10 in rankings.