couple of months back India came tantalisingly close to bagging a badminton World Championship medal. No, we aren’t talking about PV SIndhu who did the nation proud by bagging a silver, but the mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy who could have made it to the medals round too. The mixed doubles pair went till the quarters of the prestigious event and only fell to world number 1 pair of Zheng Sewei and Huang Yaqiong.
Ponnappa and Rankireddy have formed a formidable team in a category where India hasn’t tasted much success in the past, but have had encouraging results this year where they entered pre-quarters and quarters regularly. With an eye on next season, the focus of this team is go a level higher. The senior partner in this team, Ashwini has a plan ready to break the quarters barrier.
The 29-year-old told News18 Sports that the upcoming Premier Badminton League will be a great opportunity for her to learn some new tricks and add them to her game, which hopefully would help them get better results. Ponnappa, who’ll be playing for Awadhe Warriors this season is keen on picking teammate Mathias Christiansen’s brain, which will benefit her in the long run.
“This year I am a part of the Awadhe Warriors team. The most exciting thing would be the mixed doubles partner I’ll be playing with, Danish Mathias Christiansen. He has done exceptionally well in a short span of time. I have played against him and Christinna Pedersen and now I’ll be playing with him now, so I get to learn a lot. We get to share ideas from players from different countries, which normally is not possible in our sport. So there is a lot to look forward to,” she said.
Ponnappa is quick to reveal that it was during the 2016 season that she learnt a great deal from another Danish player, Joachim Fischer Nielsen, when the duo played mixed doubles for Bengaluru Top Guns. It was then that she learnt a lot from her partner, and the insights have stayed with her till now.
“When in 2016 I played with Fischer, I learnt a lot, and I have got that still with me now. So when I talk about Mathias, I am hoping it will be a similar experience. Satwik and I have played a very close match against him this year, so now we are really going to learn a lot. When you play together, you have to share ideas.”
