PVV Lakshmi speaks on daughter Gayatri’s World’s medal with ‘super attacker’ Treesa

On Friday at the Indira Gandhi stadium, a host of unconventional calls were vindicated as Treesa-Gayatri, the pair of 23-year-olds, kept India’s World Championships medal streak going, defeating Olympic champion Jia Yifan playing with Zhang Shu Xian, with a sensational 16-21, 21-15, 21-13 come-from-behind result.

The 12-edition, 15-medal streak dates back to Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa at London in 2011. The home Worlds witnessed the unexpected pairing step up ahead of the singles stars and even their celebrated doubles seniors Satwik-Chirag, to keep the home interest alive on semis Saturday. A win over top-ranked Chinese Liu-Tan could propel the World No 39s into the gold/silver orbit, after their wins over World Nos 4 and 7 this week.

“I knew Gayatri was good at singles,” Gopichand says, adding, “But she was better in doubles. I’m happy but also relieved that the decision proved right.”

In the quarterfinals, Treesa-Gayatri started with a 0-6 deficit. From there, Treesa rained down a stinging attack on the Chinese and Gayatri manipulated the shuttle with cool finesse.

Soon after the win, Treesa would rush to hug coach Gopichand who had funnelled all his instructions towards her, urging her to calm down after errors and stay pumped up and aggressive when she found the winners.

Treesa had crashed into a teammate during training injuring her ankle back in April, missing 11 tournaments, but with 50 days to go for the Delhi Worlds, Gopichand had shown up at the Hyderabad academy and insisted they train in basics like net dribbles.

India’s Gayatri Gopichand Pullela, right, and Treesa Jolly play against China’s Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian during a quarter final match of the Badminton World Championships in New Delhi. (AP Photo)

The highlight of Friday’s win was Treesa, known for her big smash, confidently dribbling and winning the net eyeball confrontation with Jia.

“Jolly has a very strong attack, and Gayatri is too sharp mentally,” the Chinese 4-time World champion would acknowledge.

Unconventional

A long-time criticism of Gopichand as national coach had been that he had showered all attention on singles, ignoring doubles. Ahead of the 2016 Olympics, he began to get serious about producing elite doubles players, and his first experiment had been Manu Attri-Sumeet Reddy, now coaches in Hyderabad with Treesa-Jolly. Arun Vishnu, another protégé, would hone their training earlier. He had been a former national doubles champ, but women’s doubles was a challenge.

“You have to become a student as a coach. I watched a lot of matches. I generally spend a lot of time thinking that I’m wrong. Being sceptical. But it’s unconventional. It works,” Gopi says.

On the recovery path, Treesa-Gayatri played a low-tier event in the Philippines – just so they could play more matches and spend time together on court.

“They both kept wondering and would laugh at Gopi asking why we were practising simple things like dribbles and not complex strategy,” Sumeeth recalls. “But Gopi is one of the best doubles coaches because he doesn’t shy away from fresh thought. He breaks rallies into multiple smaller parts. It was how Treesa needed to be prepared.”

Treesa has always been a prodigious smasher, but tends to get emotional, which is why coaches kept talking to her. The Chinese were eventually ambushed when Treesa found her range and Gayatri went for body attacks and lifts with canny angles.

The lead-up to the Worlds had been tough for Treesa-Gayatri. They had fallen from World No.9 to 41. “Gayatri’s injuries meant they missed nine tournaments before the Paris Olympics and couldn’t qualify. But Treesa had been very patient,” Lakshmi recalls. “So this time when Treesa got injured, Gayatri stayed supportive. There were a lot of bad days but the bond got thicker due to adversity.”

While Gayatri’s cross-court drop mirrors her mother’s, Treesa learnt the mix-and-match of strokes from her badminton-loving father. But the Gopichand pivot to doubles had been one of self-doubt and tinged with criticism as results took time.

Lakshmi refused to become a second strict authority figure at home. “I try to let her be. Eat her chocolate ice-cream and brownies. She eats very small quantities,” the doting mother says.

On Treesa, Lakshmi goes for the full gush.

“Her attack is so good. But she also has great variations at the net. Together they are perfectly matched. But most importantly, they care a lot for each other,” she says.