Indian shuttlers Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa won the Canada Open doubles title after upstaging the top-seeded Dutch pair of Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek in the summit clash in Calgary, Canada.
The third-seeded Indian pair triumphed 21-19 21-16 in the contest which lasted 35 minutes. In a closely-contested opening game, Gutta and Ponnappa broke away from the 19-19 and converted the lone game point opportunity to grab the initiative.
India’s best doubles pair, Gutta and Ponnappa , won as many as four bronze medals last year but a title win has eluded them and Ponnappa said it was nice to annex a trophy after a long time.
“Me and Jwala have done well last year too (sic). We won bronze medals at the ABC, Uber Cup, Asian Games in Incheon and silver at the Commonwealth Games at Glasgow,” she said.
“We also reached the semifinals at the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold and then last week at the US Open. So we have been consistent but we have won a title after a long time. It is great to break the draught,” Ponnappa added .
Gutta and Ponnappa had taken a break post the London Olympics and this is their first title since their reunion after the 2012 Games.
The duo trained separately for some time but now with the World Championship round the corner, they will once again start training together.
“We have been training separately. I train at the national camp in Bangalore under Yusuf sir or Tom John, while Jwala is with Mohd Arif Sir, but since we have played together so much, we know each other’s game and we gel well at the tournaments. But for the World Championship, Jwala will come to Bangalore and we will be training together,” said Ashwini, who alongwith Jwala won the 2011 World Championship bronze medal.
