Even though Indian badminton has scaled over the years, not much has been moved on the women’s doubles front. It has been a perturbing couple of years for India’s only hope in women’s doubles- the pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy.
Earlier, the pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa helped shine a light on women’s doubles. They won a bronze medal at the 2011 World Championships- India’s second medal after Prakash Padukone. They had already created history after winning the gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The pair also missed a quarterfinal berth at the 2012 London Olympics. The duo reached the top 10 in the World in 2015.
Eventually, Ashwini paired up with Sikki in 2016 and started with a rank of 110 in 2017, the duo reached 30 halfway through the season. In 2018, they won a bronze at the Commonwealth Games and since then, there has been no other significant achievement by the duo. Out of the 17 tournaments they played in 2019, the duo exited 10 times in the opening rounds and ended as runner ups at just a Super 100 Hyderabad Open and a lesser significant Maldives International Challenge. However, they achieved their peak rank of 17 in the same year.
In the two tournaments that they played in 2020, they did not move beyond the round of 16, and therefore, the duo is currently ranked 28th in the World with 38559 points. It is truly disheartening to see the pair losing in Round 1 or Round 2 of almost all tournaments.
Above all, the duo is the only hope for India’s women singles to the Tokyo Olympics. In the BWF World Ranking for Olympic Qualification, they are currently ranked 28 with 36179 points. With only 16 pairs qualifying for the games, they would need to close in with a higher rank as soon as the qualification period begins.
On the other front, the year has been tough for them under new coaches, Flandy Limpele and Namrih Suroto who took over after Tan Kim Her left the post earlier this year. Doubles is altogether a different game than singles that requires speed, skills, and power. Amidst all the success of Indian badminton, there still exists a hole that needs to fill up concerning the Women’s doubles category.
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