Ashwini Ponnappa, the glamourous Bangalore shuttler, is gearing up for the World championships to be held in Guangzhou, China, from August 5 to 11.
Ashwini, who won the Commonwealth Games gold partnering Jwala Gutta, now has a new doubles partner in Pradnya Gadre of Maharashtra.
She launched the Banga Beats Indian Badminton League team from her home city but quite shockingly, wasn’t picked up by them. In the player auctions, it was Pune which bagged her for a sum of $25,000.
The IBL has decided not to have women’s doubles in the championships and as such, Ashwini will have to only depend on the mixed doubles apart from the women’s singles, if she is in the fray for that event as per the decision of her team.
But on a positive note, according to her, whatever controversy that has been generated, is good for Indian badminton. “Rubbing shoulders with top players will give us a lot of benefits. The experience of playing them will remove the psychological barrier when we meet them in bigger events. Also, the game in the country will get a big boost. Not often do big names come and play here. So people will get a very big opportunity to watch them in action. I am sure Indian badminton is poised for a big leap,” said Ashwini.
Championship preparation
With the World championships coming a lot before the IBL, she has a huge advantage at the moment as she can concentrate on doing well in a championship that matters the most. Certainly, a lot more than any national league or Grand Prix in the World.
“In the past few days, the IBL distraction did disrupt my training but now I am back on court and practising hard for the upcoming World Championships. I am training in Bangalore right now while my doubles partner, Pradnya Gadre is training in Hyderabad. We hope to put in some work together soon. Having played with each other earlier, we know our games well and combining with her should be no problem,” Ashwini said.
According to her, the preparation has been good and she is working on her fitness more than any other aspect. “I have always taken one match at a time. It does not make sense predicting things, so I am concentrating on the first round right now. We have a tough first round, let’s first clear it. We will be facing Damkjaer Kruse and Marie Roepke from Denmark and we have not played them earlier. So it is going to be a very important game for us,” said the shuttler who won the bronze in the 2011 World championships with Jwala to become only the second Indian to do so after the 1983 singles bronze that the legendary Prakash Padukone won way back in 1983.
“I am partnering Tarun Kona in the mixed doubles and there I think we will meet a Japanese pair – Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Miyuki Maeda – in the first round. Let’s see how it goes,” said Ashwini.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express/ Home> Cities> Bangalore / by S S Shreekumar / ENS – Bangalore / August 01st, 2013
