Treesa Jolly giggles and mock-clucks her disappointment recalling that she’s not tried eating anything crazy, since relishing spiced crispy grasshoppers as a 16-year-old.
Now 21, the enforcer of the women’s doubles team, with Gayatri Gopichand, bites back the mirth, seriously stating, “When you start traveling so much for competitions away from home, you learn to not fuss, and eat everything.”
Treesa-Gayatri’s badminton has been a tad like that. Gobble up every challenge for sustenance on the Tour, chew meaningfully on the losses in quiet stadium and hotel corners, smack lips at the hard-fought wins. And forget what home comfort food tastes like, while scrolling down critical comments on social media about their performance.
The duo are India’s only representatives at the World Tour Finals in Hangzhou this week. And though they are the lowest ranked in their group at No.13 – pooled with Chinese World No.1s Liu-Tan, Malaysian No.6 Pearly-Thinaah and Japanese No.4 Matsuyama-Shida, the pair of 21-year-olds have nicked one win each off all their opponents. All 3 wins have, however, come in Asian team events, making this Treesa-Gayatri’s biggest individual outing, as they attempt punching above their weight in coming days.
Gayatri says the duo have realised playing the biggest names on the circuit requires a mindset where you trick your mind into ignoring ranking gulfs. Like against Liu-Tan who they beat early in 2023, but have lost thrice to, since. “We can’t focus on their No.1 ranking if we have to beat them. The mindset has to be, ‘We must win’ and play aggressively. Both Chinese are strong, all-rounders, alternating from net or back unlike other pairs. They’re all over the court and you need to be 100% all the time. It’s about finding ways to win,” she says.
“And of course, on court, there’s no World No.1 or anything. No respect that way or fear of ranking. Everyone is a fighter that never gives up,” Gayatri adds.
2024 yielded a title at Syed Modi Super 300, but it was also the year to lay the building bricks into a wall, even if fame wasn’t on the horizon. Still the duo made semis at Singapore, to match their All England shows. They beat two Top 5 Koreans on consecutive days, and pinched wins off Japanese Top 10 pairings.
“The Korean wins were big,” Treesa says. “We dropped a set and won 24-22 in decider, so it was a fighting win. Also we had never beaten then World No.2 Kim-Kong but beat them in 3 sets which added to our belief.” Treesa, who loves to pulp the shuttle with her prodigious power game, has said she’s grown patience in her bones. “Against rally players you always keep in mind that 20-30 shots for a point is the bare minimum. But you have to keep attacking more as the rally goes on.”
World Tour Finals: The three back-to-back matches against the world’s Top 10 will be Treesa-Gayatri’s biggest challenge. (BWF/ Badminton Photo)
Endurance the key
Gayatri explains that though endurance needs to be at 100% against Japanese and Koreans – compulsive retrievers, the motivation to match their style is always high. “They just don’t stop the toss-drop toss-drop. Strategy plays a huge role even if endurance wavers, you find other weapons to play smart on court,” she says.
The year had started staggeringly well, “No one expected the Indian women to win the Badminton Asia Team Championship. It was good to give crucial points to India.”
But Pearly-Thinaah (1-6 H2H) will be the big challenge at Hangzhou as the two Indians slowly learn resilience.
An unexpected stubbornness came from Taiwanese Hsei-Hung, who they beat once but lost thrice subsequently. “They play the same style as us, aggressive from the front court, trying to attack always. Yes we lost a few, next time we will beat them,” Treesa states.
The morning after a loss tends to be most important. “Losses are bad, but we know they won’t happen everyday,” Treesa explains her pressure-coping ways. “If the result is really bad, next day morning we do very tough training sessions. The approach to playing big matches is – we give 100% on court in practice sessions. But in a match I play freely, enjoy every moment.”
Gayatri adds, “We realize we will lose a lot more than win, and it’s very frustrating in close matches. But next day’s training is very very serious.”
It’s what’s dictated January 1st every year for last four years. “It’s a little later, but it’s a tradition to be on practice courts on the first of Jan at 10 am. No excuses,” Gayatri says. Treesa hasn’t been home for Christmas for the past 4 years, and this year after qualifying for the Tour Finals, has been permitted to travel for festivities. “Christmas is special for us. Haven’t spent it with my family for 4 years. This year I hope to,” she says. But there’s a week of hard work and jumping to smash like groovy grasshoppers would