Tanisha Crasto rallies for Paris again, this time with veteran Ponnappa

February 26, 2023. Senior Nationals, Pune.

Tanisha Crasto and her mixed doubles partner, Ishaan Bhatnagar, were living up to their top-ranked status in the country, cruising into the quarterfinals of the national tournament in Pune. Ranked 18th globally, the duo had been playing together in senior circuit since 2021 – they paired up in 2019 in juniors events as well – and was India’s leading contender for a Paris Olympics slot in mixed doubles category.

At the Nationals, it faced the duo of Hemanagendra Babu T-Kanika Kanwal for a place in the semis. Ishaan-Tanisha were leading 21-14, 12-13 when, during a rally, Ishaan landed awkwardly on his right leg and twisted his knee. The injury marked an abrupt end to their campaign, and to their pairing for the rest of the year; Ishaan underwent surgery and is currently undergoing rehabilitation. Tanisha Crasto, however, was left with an unfamiliar challenge with her partner’s unexpected exit.

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The 20-year-old Tanisha Crasto had set her sights firmly on mixed doubles glory alongside Ishaan Bhatnagar, for she was yet to settle with a doubles partner in women’s category. In 2022 alone, she had 3 different partners. Moreover, she hadn’t been a regular competitor in women’s doubles events, having participated in only 7 tournaments in the year. But, as fate would have it, the winds of change were already on the offing for Crasto.

While the youngster struggled to find a long-term women’s doubles partner all through 2022, a veteran shuttler threw open the doors for a new doubles alliance: Ashwini Ponnappa ended her long-term partnership with N.Sikki Reddy in October of the same year. The two found themselves at unforeseen crossroads in December as Tanisha split with Shruti Mishra, her third partner of the year. The youngster, then 19, needed stability; and Ponnappa, 33, a fresh challenge. They met at a common ground and formed an unexpected alliance, defying a 14-year age gap.

It has only been 11 months since their first match together but the partnership has quickly evolved into a beacon of promise. The duo clinched its maiden title in Abu Dhabi Super 100 in September, and on Sunday, secured an impressive silver at the Syed Modi International.

We sat with Tanisha, who is supported by the Welspun Foundation, to talk about her rather eventful 2023, that also saw her first outing at the Asian Games, held in Hangzhou in October.

Excerpts

This year has brought a big change for you, with your focus largely shifting to women’s doubles. Tell us about how the idea of you pairing Ashwini was floated.

The coaches wanted us to play. Ashwini di was playing with Sikki di before and I was playing with Shruti Mishra. Both of us split largely at the same time. Even then, over the next few months, I don’t think neither of us approached each other. But the word was around that, you know, maybe we should be playing together. Because we’d be a really strong pair. She’s an aggressive player and so am I. So, it had the potential to be a deadly combination.

So, yes, we decided that it would be good decision to work together. And the graph has only been going upwards since. There is a lot of learning that is happening in each and every match, I would say.

There is, obviously, a big age gap, and Ashwini comes with enormous experience in the circuit from across the world. Were there nerves at first?

Ashwini di is one of the best persons that I have ever met. Because, when you step on court, there is no senior-junior thing. It’s very equal. She respects my opinion and my thoughts, and obviously, I respect her opinions on what needs to be done. So, everything becomes easy.

She’s an amazing person and there’s a lot that I would learn from her. That is my goal personally… to pick a leaf out of her book. Because, of course, she is one of the legends in the women’s doubles from India and comes with years of experience. She is very welcoming and she constantly keeps asking me for my views and my thoughts. Even during matches, there are times when, if I put my point of view on a particular situation, she is very respectful about that.

You like to take charge near the net, while Ashwini prefers attacking from the back-court. Did that make things easy for you two, especially in the early days of your pairing?

Absolutely. I think we are a great pair and, of course, have a potential to be ‘deadly’ because… it is very difficult to find combinations like this, where one is really good at the back and has immense power to hit, and I think the only thing that can complement a player like that is someone who can really catch the net well and finish it.

So, this partnership is actually built right this way. I find it very comfortable to play in the front. And she sees it from the back – that’s where her strength is. And that allows me to finish from the front. I think people will really look up to our pair because we have good partnership and it is very rare t find a duo where you have one really offensive player at the back, but also an offensive player in the front. A lot of pairs don’t really have that luxury.

How is your chemistry off the court?

I think food is our go-to thing! We eat food together a lot. Of course, that is how I know that he is an amazing person! (laughs) She is very, very kind. And very adventurous. We go for long walks and listen to music. We do have a lot of things in common, so it is really nice.

To be honest, we don’t discuss what happened at the court immediately after the match is over. We go back, take some time to process about the result, and then we talk about the results over food. During training, we do a lot of match planning and in general, we talk about where we could have done better and where we can actually progress.

Your pair lost to China’s current world no.6 duo of Zhang Shuxian and Zheng Yu at Asian Games but there must have been some takeaways there…

Firstly, it was a great experience being at my first Asian Games. We got to see the team event matches, and our individual match was, as you said, against China. And I think that was the best we have played against a Chinese pairing. We could have almost pulled it off. The coaches were also really impressed and happy with the way we played.

Even though we lost, we had a lot of positives to take. That pair was among the top-5 in the world at the time, and we gave them a very tough fight. We took it positively. But we did sit over some good food, and analysed our shortcomings in detail after the match.

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have emerged as a strong doubles pair themselves, and they are currently top-ranked in India. Does that competition fuel you?

It’s good to have another women’s doubles pair. I feel it’s a great challenge. I’m happy that India has two women’s doubles pair now, who are performing good. I would never say that they are a competition, though. I feel the only competition is ourselves. If we perform better with each tournament, it’s a hundred percent progress for us.

You started the year with an eye at mixed doubles qualification at Olympics, but the targets must have changed now…

Yes. If you see the situation right now, there’s a fairly good chance in qualifying in the women’s doubles more than the mixed doubles. We (Tanisha and Dhruv Kapila) have only started playing a tournament together and I think there are, there’s just like four-five months left for the Olympics qualification (April 2024 is the qualification deadline for ‘Race to Paris Rankings’).

So, practically, if you’d see, there’s a fairly decent chance of qualifying in the women’s doubles, and that is where my focus is.

Of course, with Ishaan, you were India’s highest-ranked mixed doubles pair and a lack of similar competition meant a higher chance of securing a Paris berth. Do you feel the injury was a setback in that way?

I wouldn’t say so. Even though Ishan and I, we were world number 18, there is a system to how Olympic qualification works. You need to perform well. And, only having a higher world rank gets you entries into the bigger tournaments.

And I genuinely feel that the ultimate goal is winning tournaments and or performing well, which will eventually help you get points. I still feel like I have a pretty good chance of qualifying for the Olympics in women’s doubles. I don’t think we (Tanisha and Ashwini) are far. We are within a very less margin that we need to catch up to, and so, it’s a fairly good chance that we play the Olympics. So, I don’t feel like anything has changed, even though Ishan isn’t playing with me. I feel I’m doing well in the other categories.

Do you keep in touch with Ishaan over his recovery and rehab?

I do keep talking to him in between periods. He has started going on-court and he is doing pretty good rehab back in Bengaluru. He is getting back on track.

Following Ishaan’s injury, you partnered with Sai Pratheek, and now Dhruv. How did the pairing with Dhruv happen?

We had a word with the coaches and we thought that this pair would be a good choice. And, since he has played at the highest level, he has a good amount of experience. I think we’d make a great partnership. We gel well on court. We’ve been practicing well lately as well.