© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Indians Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela were outclassed 21-10, 21-10 by Koreans Bak Na Ha and Lee So Hee in the All England semifinals on Saturday. The Korean women’s doubles pairing handed the young Indians a defensive masterclass over 45 long minutes, as they were frustrated into making errors over prolonged rallies and their attacking instincts were crushed under Korean retrieves.
The experienced So Hee and Ha Na started off pushing the Indians to the backcourt, and ran up handy leads of 6-1 in the first and 11-2 in the second games, cramping their attacking flair which had caught the eye in their last three wins.
Perfect long lifts from the Koreans would pin the Indians to the backcourt, and being deprived of any length to hit or manoeuvre the points, they would plunge into a pool of errors to give away points in clusters. Coach Mathias Boe would urge them to trust their defence, before finding opportune moments to counter, but the Koreans are rated highly for a reason. Once they were starved of their usual dominant leads, the body language of the Indians dropped off and the Koreans found it easier to defend and sit back, waiting for the inevitable errors.
There were very few follies from the Koreans themselves, but a bulk of their 8- and 7-point flurries in each game came from Indian mistakes. Having played 70- and 90-minute matches earlier, the semifinal ended up being a rather easy outing for the now strong All England contenders, as So Hee also exacted revenge for her defeat to the Indian combination in last year’s edition.
There were lessons to be learnt by Treesa and Gayatri on following a Plan B if their original one of blitzing opponents with a flat game doesn’t work. It had worked against some big names, like the Japanese, but wouldn’t necessarily do so against all comers. The experienced Koreans showed how the Indians could be countered.
Positives still
Still, there was a silver lining to the defeat – reaching the semifinals a second successive time proved that last year hadn’t been merely fortuitous. Three wins against players who have been ranked in the Top Ten had shown that there was once more an Indian resurgence in women’s doubles, this time in a Tour event like the All England.
Treesa is not yet 20, and Gayatri barely is. But their three wins were nerveless outings, and though overpowered by the Koreans, the Indians weren’t overwhelmed though the margin might look so.
They played the week at Birmingham with speed and strength from front and back, and the thriller against the Chinese pairing in the quarterfinal even got dizzy with excitement, which one suspects they might have been carried away with. Defensive rallying is a style of play, though, they will need to learn to negotiate since the top pairings can get stuck into them by doing nothing more than returning every shuttle. Seven of the 10 top pairings are likely to be defensively sturdy and the Indians will need to find a way past those retrieving walls.
What also got called upon was their own defence, though it was more a case of them getting impatient after not being allowed the freedom to attack. That led to some harakiri moments. However, there was acknowledgement that work on both composure and alternate plans was needed.
Yet, it has been a good two months for the youngsters, with wins in the Asian Mixed team event, then winning the national title, followed by the All England run to the semis. However, success will be measured on the number of titles the pairing can clinch, rather than ranking. And how deep they go in the Majors like the World Championships.
With a season filled with the Sudirman Cup, Asian Games and Worlds, plus the Olympics qualification race, the duo will be kept busy even as they look to capitalise on this form. They lose no ranking points by making the semifinals, and the gains in experience are much more.
