India’s badminton duo of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly‘s victory at the recently concluded Syed Modi International 2025 tournament held in Lucknow has been nothing short of a terrific title defence in their favour. They defeated Japan’s pair of Mai Tanabe and Kaho Osawa by sets of 17-21, 21-13, 21-15.
Entering this year, the women’s doubles pair has produced some promising performance, starting with their qualification in the All-England quarterfinals, which was then followed by their entry in the Swiss Open semi-finals. But a shoulder injury in June held them back from their momentum after the Macau Open 2025.
Recovering in two months, Treesa, however, returned to action and made her participation in the mixed doubles event alongside Hariharan Amsakarunan. The pair went on to win the Turkiye International Challenge held in October.
In the absence of Gayatri, Tressa went ahead on a different path in order to maintain her consistency while playing in other tournaments. Her decision helped her a great deal when they participated in the Lucknow event. As a player, she became sharper for the net play and also in terms of rotation awareness and anticipation.
During an interview with PTI, Gayatri discussed the Syed Modi victory and how she recovered and regained confidence after the injury comeback.
She said, “For me, Syed Modi felt like a reward for staying patient and trusting the process. I just started playing again and it gave me a lot of confidence that my game is moving in the right direction.”
She also revealed that the rehabilitation process in recovering from the shoulder injury was a long one and which impacted her mental health. But despite the problems, the two are working ahead and preparing for the 2026 season.
“Strength wise I have to build a lot of strength, endurance as well. We’ve got a good five-week time now, so it’s a good time to build strength, agility, endurance — all of that. It’s an upward journey. I think our biggest goals are to break into the top bracket of world doubles, win more world titles, perform well at world championships. And of course, work towards Olympic qualification as well,” she added.
For around 13 weeks this year, the duo of Gayatri-Jolly was ranked world No. 9. The victory at the Lucknow event, however, has helped them regain their confidence as they enter the 2026 season in a month.
