India’s World Championship campaign ended on Saturday, but Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand gave the home crowd a run to remember.
The unseeded Indian pair arrived at the BWF World Championships not remotely close to being among the favourites. Six days later, they walked away with a historic bronze medal and the memory of pushing the world’s best women’s doubles pair to their limit in front of a home crowd of nearly 8,000.
In front of a packed Indira Gandhi Arena, Treesa and Gayatri faced world No. 1 Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning in the semifinal. The Chinese pair had won six of their previous seven meetings against the Indians, with Treesa and Gayatri’s only victory coming at the 2023 Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships. However, that one win was enough to give India hope.
The atmosphere inside the arena was unlike any other day of the tournament. Dhols, chants and calls of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ filled the stadium. The crowd knew that something special was already happening. Even with a medal secured, they wanted to see Treesa and Gayatri take one more step.
The Indians started the semifinal strongly, moving into a 7-2 lead after taking the opening point. But Liu and Tan showed why they are the world’s best. They fought back quickly and levelled the score at 7-7 before taking an 11-7 lead at the interval.
The Indian pair refused to let the game slip away. With the crowd behind them, Treesa and Gayatri slowly found their rhythm again. They brought the score level at 12-12 and then 16-16. Rallies grew longer, with both pairs refusing to give away easy points. The crowd responded with chants of ‘Pullela-Pullela’ and ‘Jolly good-Jolly good’.
At 18-18, the Indians showed remarkable calm. They took the next two points to reach game point at 20-18 and then closed out the opening game 21-18.
It was a huge statement. At the interval, Pullela Gopichand and coach B Sumeeth Reddy were once again seen talking to the players. On the other side, the Chinese camp looked tense.
The second game began with the Chinese taking an early lead, but Treesa and Gayatri stayed close. They eventually moved ahead 11-10 at the interval after forcing several errors from the world No. 1 pair.
But the match changed after the break. Liu and Tan raised their intensity and began putting the Indians under constant pressure. The Chinese pair took an 18-12 lead and, despite Gopichand’s repeated calls for calm, the second game moved away from the Indians. The Chinese duo took it 21-13 to force a decider.
The final game started with the same intensity. Liu and Tan took control early and led 5-2 before extending the advantage to 7-3. By the interval, they had built an 11-5 lead.
The Indian crowd tried everything to bring their players back into the contest. But the Chinese pair were now playing at another level. Their powerful attacks, sharp movement and speed made it difficult for Treesa and Gayatri to find a way back.
Liu’s final shot before the interval was recorded at 398 kmph, a clear sign of the aggression the Chinese pair were bringing to the court.
The lead continued to grow. The Chinese pair moved to 15-5 and then 18-8. The Indians kept fighting, but the gap became too large to close.
After 71 minutes, the dream run finally came to an end as Liu and Tan won the decider and booked their place in the final with an 18-21, 21-13, 21-8 victory.
The disappointment was clear, but so was India’s achievement. Treesa and Gayatri secured India’s first women’s doubles World Championship medal since Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa’s bronze in 2011. More importantly, they won it at home, in front of a crowd that believed in them from the first point to the last.
Their run included a statement win over Japan’s sixth seeds Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi and a stunning comeback against China’s fourth seeds Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian in the quarter-final.
They were not expected to go this far. They were not expected to carry India’s medal hopes after the exits of P V Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. But they did.
India’s campaign may have ended on the sixth day, but Treesa and Gayatri ensured it ended with a medal that kept India’s 12-year World Championship medal-winning streak alive.
Gayatri reflected on how a few mistakes in the second game affected their confidence and forced them into a defensive approach against the Chinese pair.
“I think playing with these Chinese players, I feel like we were a bit more confident in the first game,” said Gayatri. “Even when we were leading in the first half, then they covered into 11-7, they just took the break. And again we covered them, we caught them, (kept the) scoring close to them. I think that time we were much more confident and we were trailing them. But in the second game, we didn’t get the rhythm, I feel like.”
“After the second game, second half, I feel like, I think that time the few mistakes that made us a little bit unconfident, a little bit kind of doubtful about the strokes, what we are playing. Then we went more defensive and we cannot play against them defensively.”
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