Ashwini Ponnappa Rates Canada Open Win as Big Boost Ahead of World Championship

Ecstatic after winning the Canada Open women's doubles title with Jwala Gutta, Indian shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa on Monday said consistency has been the key to their success and this victory is a big boost ahead of the prestigious World Championship in August.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games gold-medallist pair of Ashwini and Jwala defeated the top-seeded Dutch pair of Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek 21-19, 21-16 to clinch the USD 50,000 Canada Open Grand Prix tournament on Sunday night.

"It is a fantastic win. We have been playing well and have been consistent. Winning the tournament just before the world championship is a great boost. Naturally, the World Championship in August is the next target for us," Ashwini told PTI from Calgary.

India's best doubles pair, Ashwini and Jwala, won as many as four bronze medals last year but a title win has eluded them and Ashwini said it was nice to annex a trophy after a long time.

"Me and Jwala have done well last year too. We won bronze medals at the ABC, Uber Cup, Asian Games in Incheon and silver at the Commonwealth Games at Glasgow. We also reached the semifinals at the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold and then last week at the US Open. So we have been consistent but we have won a title after a long time. It is great to break the draught," Ashwini said.

Ashwini and Jwala had taken a break post the London Olympics and this is their first title since their reunion after the 2012 Games.

The duo trained separately for some time but now with the World Championship round the corner, they will once again start training together.

"We have been training separately. I train at the national camp in Bangalore under Yusuf sir or Tom John, while Jwala is with Mohd Arif Sir, but since we have played together so much, we know each other's game and we gel well at the tournaments. But for the World Championship, Jwala will come to Bangalore and we will be training together," said Ashwini, who alongwith Jwala won the 2011 World Championship bronze medal.

Their consistency and a semifinal place at the US Open saw them reach their career-best ranking of world No. 13 last week and this win will see them surging further up but Ashwini said their target is doing well in tournaments and not focusing on ranking.

"It has been a great last two weeks and now the emphasis is to keep playing well and get better with each tournament. It is not about ranking because that will take care of itself as long as we keep winning. The standard of super series is different, so we will be training hard to be at our best at the World Championship."

"This is the Olympic year. So we are trying to play a few GP and GP gold events besides the Super Series tournaments."