The women’s doubles duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela is showing promising signs for the future of India’s doubles badminton.
After a decent outing in the recently held BWF World Tour Finals in Hangzhou, Treesa and Gayatri achieved their career-high world ranking of 11.
They are now India’s top women’s doubles pair after surpassing the pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto. They are expected to enter the top 10 rankings after participating in the Malaysia Open 2025 in January.
The Treesa-Gayatri duo was also the only Indian pair who was qualified for this year’s BWF World Tour finals in Hangzhou, based on BWF World Tour Rankings.
The Journey of 2024 for Treesa and Gayatri
The year 2024 was full of ups and downs for the pair. They started with the India Open S750, where they exited in the first round against the Japanese pair of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida.
After the India Open, they participated in two S300 events (Thailand Masters and German Open), where they finished as quarterfinalists.
Their next tournament was the French Open S750. In the first round, they were up against their fellow Indian pair, Ashwini and Tanisha. Treesa and Gayatri defeated AshTan to enter the R16. In the R16, Treesa-Gayatri upset the world-ranked 7 pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota but went down in the quarterfinals against a Chinese pair.
At the All England Open, they couldn’t maintain their momentum and exited in the first round. Their performance continued to dip, as they lost in the first round at the Spain Masters (S300) to a USA pair.
The Asia Championship and Malaysia Masters also didn’t go well for them.
However, the pair regained their form at the Singapore Open S750, where they reached the semifinals by upsetting the world-ranked 2 and 6 pairs in the R16 and quarterfinals, respectively.
Their inconsistency is the problem for the pair throughout the year. After one good tournament they weren’t able to continue the form and momentum.
They also reached the quarterfinals of the US Open and Canada Open.
After the Olympics, the pair really struggled to find their form. They exited in the first or second rounds of 5 tournaments. In between that, they also reached the semifinals of the Macau Open.
Treesa-Gayatri qualified for the World Tour Finals in the China Masters. This was their maiden appearance in the finals. They were also the sole representative in the finals from India.
Breakthrough Performance at Syed Modi International
Despite the ups and downs, Treesa-Gayatri still needed to win their first title of the year, and what could be a better place to do it than on home soil?
They won their first title of the year at the Syed Modi International. They won in the final in straight games against the Chinese pair and became the first Indian women’s doubles to win this tournament.
The confidence gained from this tournament helped the duo in the World Tour Finals. In their first match, they nearly upset the WR 1 but couldn’t hold their nerves at crucial points. In their second match, Treesa-Gayatri upset the WR 6 Tan/Thinaah in straight games.
However, they lost their third match and finished third in group stages.
As 2024 comes to an end, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have firmly established themselves as contenders for major titles.
