India’s ace women’s doubles team of Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta have called time on their partnership with personal priorities overriding their partnership. Following their split, while Gutta will be playing only mixed doubles partnering Manu Attri, Ponnappa will be playing women’s doubles teaming up with N. Sikki Reddy.
The duo had been together since 2010 and had achieved considerable success together. Their first success as a team came at the Commonwealth Games that year, where they won the gold medal against Singaporeans Shinta Mulia Sari and Yao Lei.
A year later, they became the first Indian doubles team to win a medal at the World Championships, winning the bronze medal in the 2011 event. 2014 was their crowning glory as they went on to win bronze medals at the Asian Championships and Uber Cup, before finishing as the silver medallists at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
In 2015, Gutta and Ponnappa became the first – and until now, only – women’s doubles team from India to win a Grand Prix title, notching a win at the Canadian Grand Prix.
They also teamed up for two Olympics, the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Games though on both occasions they couldn’t replicate their other successes.
Their participation in the two Olympics came on either side of their brief split. After the 2012 Olympics, Gutta announced that she needed time away from the sport and Ponnappa then teamed up with Pradnya Gadre.
Gutta re-joined the sport at the start of the year in 2013, but with Ponnappa’s partnership continuing to build with Gadre the two didn’t join forces together. However, their bad experience with the Indian Badminton League that was launched in June 2013 saw them come together again as a team.
Ponnappa and Reddy will begin their association at the Scottish Open to be held from 23rd to 27th November.
