Since Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy briefly gave hopes for India cracking the elusive mixed doubles puzzle, it’s been a long wait for Indians to make a serious mark at the World Championships in that discipline. On Thursday, for the first time after 2018, Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila ensured there would be an Indian presence in the last eight at the marquee event as they stunned fifth seeds Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet. Despite dropping the opening game that they really should have converted, Tanisha and Dhruv bounced back in style to win 19-21, 21-12, 21-15 in a 63-minute rollercoaster.
Sumeeth Reddy, a former Indian doubles player now coaching alongside Malaysia’s Tan Kim Her, had no hesitation in ranking this performance as the best by partnership so far. “I think it’s their biggest win so far, especially given the form of the opponents, who have won the Asian Championships this year,” Sumeeth told The Indian Express from Paris after the match. “After the match, even their opponents couldn’t quite believe it. Irrespective of what happens (in the quarterfinal), this is a huge win for them. When you beat a top-five pair in the world, it is a huge confidence booster.”
Sumeeth says the pair were confident coming into the tournament after a good training block, but the recent results weren’t great. After a good start to their partnership last year, reaching the final at Syed Modi Super 300 in Lucknow as well as reaching the quarterfinals at Asian Championships this year, things dipped. Two first-round exits in North America – the second one at Canada Open against a Spanish pair – were not good signs for a pair that promised a lot in recent times. The key coming into Paris was to put those results aside and trust in their training and planning. In essence, that was also a summary of their quarterfinal performance against Tang-Tse, where they had to quickly move on from dropping the opening game. “The training went well, they arrived at the tournament fresh and without doubts. Despite facing a higher-ranked pair, they didn’t let past results affect them, and after losing the first game, they never showed they were coming to Paris after a low phase,” Sumeeth insisted.
“We had a rough run a couple of months back. but we are building back together, step by step, slowly getting there. Really happy with the way we played today,” Tanisha told BWF after the match. “We came prepared better this time. We didn’t give up at any point in the match. Even after we lost the first set, we didn’t let it get to us. In fact, we fought back even harder in the second and third. We kept pushing each other till the end, till the last shot. I think that was the real game changer.” Dhruv chimed in: “Previously, when we were losing the first game, we got mentally down, but today we stayed strong.”
Coming into the match, there was a little bit of concern around Dhruv’s fitness, having gone down clutching his ankle during the match on Wednesday, but Sumeeth said it was only some jarring he felt in the knee. The tall right-hander didn’t take long at the start of the match to make his presence felt from the backcourt, moving sharply. Right through the match, Tanisha’s serves, her signature crouched defence and her inventive gameplay at the net stood out. Together, they constantly had the Hong Kong pair under pressure but from 17-15 up, they couldn’t convert the opener. The Indians however didn’t let that get them down and went on to dominate the next two games.
The key to the turnaround was a smart tactical tweak. “The major tactical aspect of the win was that – as Tang and Tse were lefties with really strong forehands – in the second game we told them to put the shuttle onto the opponents’ backhand, which actually helped them. Once they were playing mostly to the backhand, Tang started covering that side and our players could see some empty spots on their forehand side,” Sumeeth said. Indeed, From the second game, Dhruv was able to repeatedly hit that backhand crosscourt drive that had Tang scrambling side to side.” And while Dhruv was maneuvering the angles, Tanisha often kept rallies going with her crouched defence, which has become somewhat of a signature. “She just has that grit to keep the shuttle somehow in play,” Sumeeth agreed with a smile. “She is a fighter.”
On Friday, up against another higher-ranked pair in world No 4 Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, the Indian duo can go in with the confidence of knowing anything is possible when they are dialled in.
