Thirteen years ago in 2010, Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta took gold in the women’s doubles at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. It was a first for an Indian pair at the event. In the years ahead, they picked up bronze at the World Championships (2011) and the Asian Championships (2014), besides a number of team events including the Uber Cup and the Asian Games.
Their career-high ranking of World No. 10 was a remarkable story at the time for Indian badminton. It got people talking about doubles, which was usually put on the back burner when compared to singles. Gutta called time on her career around 2017, but Ponnappa knew she still had the legs to continue playing at the highest level. She teamed up with N Sikki Reddy, and they made a few finals as well, until their partnership ended last year. Ponnappa considered giving her doubles career a break and instead, focussing on the mixed doubles.
“I always knew doubles was what I enjoyed most. But to compete again, it had to be purely my own decision, without being influenced by those around me. Once I had the clarity on what I wanted to do and who I wanted to play with, I decided to go for it,” Ponnappa says.
That arrived with the prospect of teaming up with Tanisha Crasto, who is 13 years younger to Ponnappa. To put it in perspective, when Ponnappa won the Commonwealth Games gold, a seven-year-old Crasto was winning local tournaments in Dubai where she grew up.
“I would see her during the national camps in Hyderabad and I thought she had a lot of potential. You see kids who are naturally inclined towards doubles and she was definitely one of them,” Ponnappa says.
Ponnappa soon realised they were quite comfortable on court once they started training last year. At their first tournament in January, the Indonesia Masters, the duo made the quarterfinal. Crasto was at ease playing at the net, given that she had focussed on mixed doubles through all of last year, where the woman usually operates front court. It allowed Ponnappa to continue playing from the back, which has most suited her game over the years.
“She is young and moves well, really agile and good with anticipation. I knew she would naturally go and fill the gaps that I would create or which opened up. Even when I moved to the net occasionally, she had my back. Having someone who understands these things in a doubles partnership is what makes all the difference,” she says.
“But yes, it’s tricky especially when you think that I was playing internationally when she was still a kid,” she adds.
The difference in age was always in question but Ponnappa made the effort to ensure she spent enough time with her partner off the court to break the ice. What also helped Crasto maintain the balance is that she continued to train with her mixed doubles partner, Ishaan Bhatnagar, who is closer to her age.
After running into the Chinese on multiple occasions over the next few months, Ponnappa and Crasto finally met success at the Nantes International Challenge in June.
“The way we adapted to each match was what was really important. Since we didn’t have a coach with us, we had to analyse our match, change the things that weren’t working and then come back for the next one. We did that quite well, a very rewarding experience on the whole,” Ponnappa says.
“When you’ve been on the circuit for a really long time, sometimes it does get hard. So motivation wise, it is nice to play with someone younger. Tanisha is very enthusiastic to go out and play well, which takes me back to when I started out. And that can really rub off on your partner,” she adds.
After winning both their matches at the trials for the Asian Games in May, theirs is the second women’s doubles pair in Huangzhou alongside Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, slated to play the individual as well as the team event. Ponnappa wants to continue functioning the way they have all year, one game at a time, while looking to get the basics right.
What is more critical for her career at this stage is to look after her body. She’s more mindful about how she goes about training, with an added emphasis on the cooling down routine and recovery process to remain injury-free. More time is dedicated to plyometric exercises and indulging in massage sessions to deal with the aches and pains.
“I’ve gotten away with a lot in the past, but the body now reacts to things and I have to address it. The bigger challenge is to keep your mind fresh and motivated, to be enthusiastic about training and being on court. Age is just a number and if there can be a 34-year-old world championship finalist, as was the case in the men’s doubles this year, there really are no excuses,” Ponnappa says.
The current state of doubles badminton in India is what delights her. Back when she started out, she recalls how everybody loved playing doubles but nobody wanted to be solely a doubles player.
“Doubles has become so big right now in India that players are training for it at a young age. They even have sponsors to train, travel and compete, which never did exist in our time,” she says.
“We’ve broken a lot of barriers, had a lot of historic moments and I would like to believe that has changed the way doubles is perceived today,” she says.
There’s a few things on the bucket list that Ponnappa still wants to tick off in her professional career. But she’s reached a maturity where she wants her actions to do a lot of the talking, just like she did 13 years ago.
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