Gayatri Gopichand

Gayatri Gopichand is the daughter of prominent Badminton player and coach Pullela Gopichand. Gayatri continues to create ripples in the international games. With the turn of 2022, Gayatri Gopichand has become a well-known face of Indian Badminton. She has written many success stories under his name, including participating in a women's doubles semifinal at the All England Open with co-partner Treesa Jolly, which captured the imagination of badminton fans.

Her ascent to prominence echoes the era when her father, Pullela Gopichand, first made waves among badminton aficionados. Gayatri's exceptional talent reignites the passion and excitement reminiscent of her father's iconic presence in the badminton world. Young, spirited, and Dynamic Gayatri Gopichand has a long way to travel just to match her father's record and accolades, and the potential she manifests is promising.

Early Background

Gayatri Gopichand was born on 4 March 2003 and is the daughter of legendary former badminton player Pullela Gopichand and PVV Lakshmi. Her mother is an eight-time national women's badminton champion, an Olympian, and a medalist Commonwealth Games. Therefore, it is obvious that she grew up in an atmosphere where badminton was not alien to her; instead, it was the way of life in their family.

Being enthused with the sport from an early and the capability to adapt, learn, and train with India's top shuttlers, including PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, at the Pullella Gopichand Badminton Academy, contributed to her tremendous progress. Apart from being trained under her father, she has also been trained under Coach Anil, who oversees the Junior players at the Gopichand Academy.

She has also performed pretty well in several junior tournaments, reaching level round 16 at the 2017 Junior World Championships and reaching the final of the Pembangunan Jaya Raya International Junior Grand Prix Indonesia during the same year. While at the age of 15, Gayatri has proved its mettle by being Indian No.1 player in the Under 17 in India. She has also been beating senior players at the domestic ranking tournaments.

Her impressive performance in the ranking events helped him to get spots in the Indian Badminton Squad for the Jakarta 2018 Asian Games; at that time, she was 15 years old. She was also to be the youngest member to be part of the Indian Asian Games Badminton contingent. But recently, Unnati Hooda took the achievement as she became the latest player to make an entry in the 2022 Asian Games at the age of 14.

While being at the Asian Games, she gained remarkable experience that led her to step onto another circuit in 2019, and in no time, she won her maiden senior medal. She won a women's singles silver at the 2019 South Asian Games in Nepal. She was also instrumental in the victory of the women's team and clinching gold at the Kathmandu meet. She bagged singles silver behind the Malvika Bansod at the Nepal International BWF Challenge series the same year.

Shifting to Badminton Doubles- A Masterstroke

Due to disruption caused by COVID, Gayatri Gopichand's career also came to a halt and her badminton calendar also got disrupted from 2020 to 2021. However, the period proved to be a milestone for her.

At that time, she was a singles player, and she shifted her priorities to doubles after being nudged by her father and Badminton coach, Arun Vishnu. They persuaded her to test the water in the doubles. Gayatri also found her perfect partner with Tressa Jolly joining the Gopichand Academy just at the beginning of the 2020 lockdown.

This badminton combination was formed spontaneously and at the moment. This Duo proved to be very effective and useful as this Duo finished as runner-up in the Polish International 2021. It was the first international tournament for the Duo.

This Duo also went on to register victory over their first title and bag gold at the Indian International Challenge before clinching the silver medal at the 2021 Welsh International. During the same period, Gopichand teamed up with K Sai Pratheek and was positioned as runner-up in the mixed doubles event at the India International.

Tressa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand continue to make a big leap in 2022 before reaching the finale of Syed Modi International and positioning themselves for their maiden BWF World Tour title at the Odisha Open.

Matching the Father's Story

Gayatri Gopichand was about to receive its big breakthrough. Before reaching the All England Open 2020, Gayatri and Tressa were positioned fourth on the reserves list for the BWF Super 1000 spectacle, but a late pullout moved them into the women's doubles main draw.

The Duo was slowly moving ahead by defeating Thailand's Benyapa and Nuntakarn Aimsaard in the first round and was about to face Indonesian Duo Greysia Polli and Apriyani Rahayu. The Indonesian pair was the Tokyo Olympics women's doubles champions in the second round of the game.

Gayatri and Tressa remained unfazed and battled hard; however, they lost the first game by 21-18. In the second game, the Indian pair showed a pretty decent fight as they were leading the match by 19-14, but the match could not proceed further as one of the Indonesian Players (Apriyani Rahayu) got injured.

In the quarter-finals, Gayatri and Tressa were faced with Lee So-hee and Shin Seung Chan- world championship silver medallists. Gayatri-Tressa faced defeat in the first round of the game but bounced back quickly to win the game. This Duo also became the first woman to reach the semifinal of All England Open.

However, the dream to win the All England Open was shattered when they faced China's Zhang Shu Zian and Zheng Yu in the Semifinals. However, the Indian Duo has scripted history at Birmingham by making it to the semifinals in the All-England Open.

The Campaign in the All England Open 2022 was special from the perspective of Gayatri Gopichand. It was magnificent and incredible for her as it was the same tournament from where her father became one of the greatest players in Indian badminton.

Some of the records set by the Duo are:

• The Duo was positioned at 433rd when they were playing into the BWF badminton rankings in September 2021
• Soon, they climbed to 34th when they made it into the All-England Open in March 2022
• This partnership has defeated high-ranked opponents, which include the Japanese team (Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota) and the South Korean team (Ha Na Baek and So Hee Lee)
• This Indian Badminton partnership appeared in the All-England Semifinals and also turned out to be Commonwealth medallists.
• These partnerships have also bagged the women's doubles bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, once again in Birmingham.
• The Duo was also a member of the part of a mixed team, which clinched a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
• This Duo also played in the Asia Mixed Team Badminton Championships and finished by clinching a bronze medal.

Biography in Brief

• Full Name: Gayatri Gopichand Pullela
• Profession: Badminton Player
• Special Mention: She is the daughter of the former legendary badminton player Pullela Gopichand and P.V.V. Lakshmi

Physical Statistics and Measurement

• Color of Hair: Black
• Color of Eye: Black
• Height: 168 Centimeters

Personal Life Details

• Age: 20 (as of 2023)
• Date of Birth: 4 March 2003
• Place of Birth: Hyderabad, Telangana
• School Name: Glendale Academy, Hyderabad
• Nationality: Indian
• Zodiac Sign: Pisces
• Marital Status: Unmarried

Family Trees

• Father: Pullela Gopichand (Chief Badminton National Coach for the India National Badminton Team and Former Badminton Player)
• Mother Name: PVV Lakshmi
• Brother Name: Sai Vishnu Pullela
• Grandfather: Pullela Subhash Chandra
• Grandmother: Pullela Subbaravamma

Beloved Things

• Most Admired Badminton Players: Cheng Long, Tai Tzu Ying, and Kento Momoto
• Favorite Subject: English

Unknown Facts

• Gayatri primarily participates in the women's double and mixed doubles categories in several badminton tournaments.
• She just walked in the footsteps of his father and started preparing herself for badminton at the young age of 7.
• Later she participated in several badminton tournaments and registered victory also in them.
• During their leisure period, she is fond of English and Hindi films, music, singing, and dance.

Allegations of Favouritism

Gayatri Gopichand used to play with another badminton player, Vaishanavi, in Women's doubles. However, Vaishnavi's parents leveled charges against the father of Gayatri Gopichand, that he was being unfair to their daughters and chose Gayatri to represent in the 2018 Asian Games, overlooking Vaishanavi. Afterward, many more parents of the badminton player came up with similar accusations of favoritism.

Conclusion

Gayatri Gopichand stepped into the badminton court at a very young age. Her fondness and passion for badminton started to reflect from a very early age. She also received valuable and crucial support from her parents. She lived in an atmosphere where badminton was meant to be a way of life. Therefore, it would not have to be a big hurdle for her.

All the institutional and equipment support that is required to shape a badminton player into a fierce, competitive, and unbeatable was readily available to her. She had faced little struggle in terms of support and finance. She rose quickly from regional tournaments to international tournaments.