Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly may have fallen short of a place in the World Championships title clash but their stunning run has given Indian badminton a landmark women’s doubles medal and the pair a new belief in their potential.
Gayatri and Treesa's inspirational run ended with a 21-18, 13-21, 8-21 loss to world No. 1 and defending champions Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning in the women's doubles semifinals.
India last won a BWF World Championships medal in women's doubles in 2011, when Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa claimed bronze in London.
The medal placed them in an exclusive group of Indian players to have stood on the World Championships podium.
"Being into that club, I feel so happy. There is a lot of journey we have in the future. I feel like this is just the start," Treesa told reporters after the match.
"First of all, I would like to thank the team behind us. We will take them for some lunch or something."
Arjuna Award adds to their confidence
Treesa said the recognition was particularly meaningful, with the announcement of their Arjuna Award earlier in the week providing another boost.
"We just need to take this as a positive and in a confident way. Even that Arjuna Award this week when they announced, I feel like that also gave us some other boost in this tournament," she said.
Despite the result, Treesa was delighted with the overall campaign.
"If you see the whole week, it has been amazing, I feel like. We have made so much of upset and it's such a great week for us. So much of great matches we played and so much of things to take away from this tournament," she said.
Gayatri opens up on mental fatigue
Gayatri said the emotional intensity of their previous match had taken a mental toll, although they managed to start strongly in the next outing.
"Yesterday was a pretty intense match. So mentally it was pretty tough. Today when we were on court, we were fresh in the first set as well. Sometimes you do get a little tired mentally," she said.
Treesa also acknowledged that luck can play a role in crucial moments.
"I feel like in the crucial situations, it's like with confidence and luck, everything will come together," she said.