The pressure of the second name has been so much, the grind of preparation to be worthy of the All England stage so severe, that Gayatri Gopichand has learnt to live and play in a blur. At 17-18 in the decider against Korean World No 11s Kim Hye Jeong and Kong Hee Yong, Gayatri and partner Treesa Jolly admitted to be buzzing with nervous tension. The previous sets had gone 15-21, 21-18, and Treesa had just soared high for a first real release straight smash, taking the liberty to leap away from constant pounding and low retrieving that can make chins ache. But 17-18’s can go either way.
It’s at this juncture that Gayatri pulled out the gutsiest of blurs, a taut dribble – that even the Indian coaches Tan Kim Her and Sumeeth Reddy were unsure of, where it had landed. The angle as she whizzed to the net in a jiffy was so subtle that the Koreans were caught off guard trying to parry it. It slumped into the net, and the young Indians were on their way to a third quarterfinal at Birmingham winning 15-21, 21-18, 21-18 in 87 minutes.
For Gayatri and Treesa, the All England is the chosen one.
It’s the event for which coach Pullela Gopichand serves a rare ultimatum to not even think of slackening. There’s a 30-minute punishing drill of immense intensity each morning that tires the duo out before it’s even 9 a.m, in the lead-up. They are taught to worship badminton’s tiniest details – visualise next three moves like in chess literally – and fall in love with the rigour, strengthen the brain to endure pressure. “It’s very prestigious. Whenever we are here, it feels like 200 percent. I love playing here,” Gayatri would tell BWF later.
One of Gayatri’s finest
They don’t strap on the big pugilists’ gloves, these 21 year olds, but the duties are split, red and blue – Gayatri to float like a butterfly, Treesa to sting like a bee. There are backups to backup plans. But just the physical court drills prime them to move so smooth, that even the peripheral vision gets trained to know the position of the partner. But mistakes are inevitable, opponents raising their game is to be expected. So coach Reddy kept telling them to not hanker after perfection. The instruction was to recover as best they could from the imperfect stroke and be ready for the next one.
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Gayatri, it can be said, played one of her finest matches, and this on a day when Treesa was pretty error-free herself.
Having lost the opening set, the Indians were in contention at 14-14 in the second. It’s when Gayatri pushed a gear to turn aggressive. She doesn’t hit as hard as many others, but the brain lasers through gaps so quickly that the racquet-head moved like a chisel in the air. For one, she was angling the bird into the Korean torsos in a way that they were cramped by own limbs, regretting just the two joints of the levers. The shuttle flew at them sideways in. And then she has developed a net charge – a diagonal like Chirag Shetty’s that the Koreans were stumped at how quickly she was at their faces, with no inkling of her driving or smashing.
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Treesa-Gayatri are built different to all east Asians and the style they are employing is a speed+placement hybrid. Treesa is the obvious trump card with her power, but her racquet skills are developing so fast, she could be the best all-round player pretty soon, without being hemmed into the power reputation. But it was Gayatri who crowded the Koreans to draw out errors because her angles fooled their speed. Boggled, they served into the net to hand over set 2, 21-18.
The Indians led 11-9 in the third, fell back 12-15, but this pairing is mentally sturdied up for the endgame. At 15-16 had come a crucial moment though that point had gone to the Koreans. But Gayatri, falling to the floor, sent a return soaring to earn them some seconds to reassemble. Thereafter the aggression under pressure amped up. Treesa was covering the back dependably but Gayatri kept her options open, fanning out backcourt herself from the T. The aggression was in her choice of when to charge the net, and how quickly she went about it.
Treesa had her trademark smash at 17-17, and then Gayatri took absolute control with the net playmaker sorcery. Korean errors drifted like iron filings to magnet as the form-pair couldn’t work out the maze. It wasn’t power to be stubbed out with lifts or strength to be absorbed in defense. The Indians kept hopping, always on their toes and the sheer volume of activity did the Koreans in.
Coach Reddy said, “It took guts for Gayatri and Treesa to catch those in-between shuttles, the set ups, not just winners.” The pressure built over the course of a rally.
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The two undertake a modified form of the singles’ ‘corner work’ drill. Individually, they spend 30 minutes of very fast paced shot making, that can feel tougher than a 100m sprint. It’s about pushing to max, after you are tired and breathless. It’s the drive-smash-run-rinse-repeat that never might play out in a match, given the burdens are shared. But Treesa and Gayatri are literally trained for singles, but with a chess OS whirring in the head with doubles simulations.
The big challenge is next – Chinese power pairing Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning, a juggernaut if there ever was one, after having to “settle” for silver at Olympics. The Indians, ranked 9, are firm underdogs against World No 2. “It was a great 87 minute match, mentally we were prepared. When the draw was out we knew we are ready for that. Last points, we attacked and everything went our way,” she told BWF. They trail 1-4 in H2H against the Chinese dueo, but unprepared they certainly won’t be.
