Doubles is not a secondary event: Sumeeth Reddy on Treesa-Gayatri

New Delhi: India’s long-running medal streak at the BWF World Championships has extended for another year to 15, thanks to Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand reaching the women’s doubles semi-finals.

The pair, who were not expected to deliver India’s sole medal at these championships, have left the entire national capital in awe with their performances.

“They played with the utmost freedom on court. I think it was very lovely for the coaches to watch as well,” said Indian doubles coach Sumeeth Reddy.

A notable shift is that while India has traditionally excelled in singles, this marks the second successive World Championships where the doubles category has secured a medal.

In fact, two Indian doubles pairs reached the quarter-finals, with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty exiting at that stage, while no singles player advanced that far.

“I’m really happy, and I would say more players should play doubles. With very few pairings, if we can have two pairs in the quarter-finals and one in the semi-finals, that is really good,” added Sumeeth, a former Indian doubles player himself.

Satwik-Chirag clinched two bronze medals (2022 and 2025) in men’s doubles, and now Treesa-Gayatri have confirmed a women’s doubles medal after 15 years, highlighting India’s growing prowess in doubles.

“I think, you know, doubles is really doing well, and it is not a secondary event. I mean, we are earning well. We are famous enough. So I think I don’t see a reason why people don’t take doubles as their main event,” said Sumeeth on India’s rising prowess in doubles.

“I think they should play a lot more doubles, and I’m sure with time people will realise and take up doubles as their main event as well,” he added.

What changed for Treesa-Gayatri

Treesa and Gayatri have had quite a few ups and downs in their careers, having made back-to-back semi-final appearances at the prestigious All England Open in 2022 and 2023.

“I think they were playing really well, but I only think the consistency was somewhat missing. They used to trail and then equalise it and then again make one or two mistakes, be it due to the drift or the opponent playing a better stroke or something like that,” Sumeeth said, explaining what had been going wrong for Treesa-Gayatri.

“A couple of points’ lead for our girls changed the whole scenario. It was the whole thing we were thinking about since the start of the match, and once that happened, they were just in their flow, and the points rolled,” Sumeeth said, explaining what clicked for them in the quarter-final.

After their win yesterday, Treesa-Gayatri burst into tears of joy and were inconsolable after achieving such a significant milestone on the biggest stage, in front of the home crowd.

The weight behind the moment

“When emotions fall in, I mean, no words could normalise things. I think both of them have their own baggage, starting with Gaya being obviously Gopi sir’s daughter. It’s a big baggage, you know, and everyone would say, silver spoon and all of that, but I think it’s a very big baggage,” Sumeeth said, reflecting on their emotional outburst.

“And Treesa also was very hungry from the start of her career. She wanted to do something big, prove her point that she’s not playing tournaments just to compete. She always wanted to be the star of Indian badminton. I think this again is a big, big achievement in her kitty as well,” he added.

Treesa has had her share of struggles this year, suffering an injury before the Asian Championships and missing the tournament. However, she has now returned with a major medal.

“It was more like an accident where, you know, she kept her feet on another player, and it was very sad. Even then they were playing really well. Probably we could have seen some good results in those tournaments also,” Sumeeth said about the injury.

“But from day one, rather than thinking about why it happened, they were focusing on what needs to be done better. I mean, Treesa used to focus more on her stroke and improve her confidence, and Gaya used to, you know, start on the first day with her fitness. And you can see they were good enough to play another 20 minutes after the match as well. So I think they focused on that,” he added.