She rarely or never mentions the significance of it, but Ashwini Ponnappa was right there when India kickstarted the habit of winning medals at World Championships. In 2011, she began the streak with Jwala Gutta, and then went on to be an all-weather well-wisher and true-blue teammate to a pair that has been the biggest doubles story of the last decade – Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
“They have risen above the challenges of the past year. We are rooting for them to do even better,” she says with granite-solid loyalty that stems from closely watching your people struggle and then beat back the odds.
Satwik tasted his earliest international doubles success alongside Ashwini in mixed doubles, and she completely understood when he chose to focus on men’s doubles. As a well-travelled senior, she also helped them get into the groove of travel in the Far East, the weather, the customs, the food, famously introducing Chirag to experimental Japanese cuisine. She might have been privy to all their form struggles, technical frustrations and even injuries, but was known for her non-interfering, always-positive, quietly cheerleading wise counsel.
The two valued her advice, ever since they watched her play every day of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, two matches for around 10 straight days in mixed and women’s doubles, as India finally nailed the team gold. She’s been someone always on “their side”, rooting for their wins. Like Hagrid with gryffindorian loyalty and affection to Harry & Hermione. But more a calm sounding board. It’s why she can put Paris 2024 and Paris 2025, no medal and a Worlds bronze, into perspective.
“This bronze will do a lot of good to their frame of mind. Everyone of course trains long cycles for the Olympics especially in a sport like our’s where the Games are a pinnacle. But the Olympics is also where there’s a lot happening, beyond the game and how well you playing. So going back to Paris, it’s not the same event, but same venue. It must’ve been a tough medal mentally to win. And by beating Chia-Soh, to whom they had lost to at crucial events. It made us so, so happy,” she says, having been around in Paris last year. Redemption or not, the medal feels personal to her. “Last three months have been tough, trust me…” she trails off.
Ashwini also understands the dichotomy of Satwik-Chirag’s past one year – the results weren’t great, losing finals, some technical blocks showing up, injuries, even as she noticed their game improving – a solidity, more problem-solving capacity fortifying them, even if rankings dropped, and they started getting written off by banshees and grinches. “As a fellow shuttler, you can see they are getting better and better, they handle pressure much better, and they’re fairly young but still have a long way to go to full potential,” she says. At 26 and 28, it might not be considered young, but Ashwini explains the dynamics of doubles badminton play out differently.
Because they were this happy-go-lucky seeming pair, that danced after titles, grinned widely, quipped funny, smashed like giants and rarely fussed over bad times, the slump hit harder, even altering their personalities – but making them stronger.
“Injuries as you get older are very tough, Satwik lost his dad, the Olympic loss. These aren’t things you get past or overcome easily. It’s challenging, there’s different emotions on court, off court, a lot of things are happening to pull you down.” Happens to all, but theirs was starker, she adds.
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But it’s also been a period where they’ve grown as a partnership. “They’ve come to rely on each other in tough times, they value each other. It’s quite nice to watch them win having gone through this phase together,” she says.
The broader contours of the partnership have changed, Ashwini says. “They were very strong, but now Satwik can dominate at the net, Chirag plays a lot from the back. When fast and powerful, they are formidable. But in their flow they can be ‘lethal.’ I say, a long way to go, because the Koreans (Seo Seung-jae-Kim Won-ho) remain tricky. But beating Aaron Chia for the medal, who reads the game better than most and getting past his net-play is a big, big step forward,” she says.
The H2H (it’s 4-11 to Chia-Soh now), can be daunting, but Ashwini gives Satwik-Chirag 10/10 for technique, and how they dealt with pressure and emotions in that quarterfinal.
Going forward, Ashwini says her only wish is they stay fit and healthy. “The challenge always is how to get an injury-riddled body working for the game. Body takes a beating, there’s more wear and tear because of their style than players who play defensive and take pace off the shuttle. Countering new pairs – not yet analysed, can pose a separate challenge, knowing back of their mind that their own game is threadbared,” she says.
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What’s always struck Ashwini about Satwik-Chirag is how they’ve been ambitious together. “I love their ambition, and it used to fuel their success. But now the bond is strengthened because they look out for each other, after failure. That’s unbreakable,” Ashwini says. From Destructive Duo, Satwik-Chirag have in this past year, stuck on, fought cruel fate and made the more crucial journey to become Indestructible Indians.
