"They've Done Us Proud": Pullela Gopichand Salutes Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand's Historic Worlds Run
Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly may have fallen short of a place in the World Championships title clash, but their stunning run has given Indian badminton a landmark women's doubles medal and the pair a new belief in their potential.
Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly may have fallen short of a place in the World Championships title clash, but their stunning run has given Indian badminton a landmark women's doubles medal and the pair a new belief in their potential. Gayatri and Treesa's inspirational run ended with a 21-18, 13-21, 8-21 loss to world No. 1 and defending champions Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning in the women's doubles semi-finals. India last won a BWF World Championships medal in women's doubles in 2011, when Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa claimed bronze in London.
The medal placed them in an elite group of Indian players to have stood on the World Championships podium.
Talking to NDTV in an exclusive interview, chief coach and a former India player, Pullela Gopichand, who is also the father of Gayatri, shared his feelings.
What are you proudest of at the moment, being the father or the coach? "I think both. Whenever I am on court, it is the coach in me, but when I'm outside, it is the father. I think both Treesa and Gayatri have done us proud. They fought really well and I am happy with the medal. Of course, I would have loved to see them going to the final but, they have done well. They have beaten the top players, so I think it has been a great performance," he said.
"They play a very different game. It's good to see them because these conditions typically are not the best conditions for them in terms of the slow courts. But I think they can go far. They are both young and hopefully, in the years to come, we will get more results," the coach added.
Predicting Indian badminton's performance in the upcoming Asian Games, the coach said, "The Indian team is a strong side overall. Lakshya Sen, Ayush Shetty, HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth make it a strong team. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty make it a strong doubles side. On the women's side, PV Sindhu has played really well. Gayatri and Treesa, and other young singles players like Tanvi Sharma, will be quite strong in the area. So I am quite happy with the team and very optimistic about their performance. I do believe that we will have a good performance at the Asian Games."
(With PTI Inputs)