Treesa and Gayatri aim to impress at World Tour Finals

NEW DELHI: It had been a far from ideal year for Treesa Jolly and P Gayatri Gopichand.

- Sandip Sikdar

Since the end of the Tokyo Olympics, the duo was the country's top women's doubles pair, slowly rising up the rankings but favourites to qualify for the Paris Games.

But Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa decided to join hands in 2023 and give their partnership of youth and experience a try. They not just clicked by winning many tournaments but also displaced Treesa and Gayatri as the country's highest ranked pair, qualifying for Paris.

So near yet missing out on the Olympics - a dream for any athlete - was a tough pill to swallow for the 21-year-olds. "It was quite sad," says Treesa. But the two decided to take the disappointment in their stride. "We realised we will go through this kind of challenges and that there were a lot of tournaments where we need to perform. We didn't give up and just started training every day, learning lots of things, what we needed to improve, and those aspects."