Gayatri Gopichand

Some Lesser Known Facts About Gayatri Gopichand

• Gayatri Gopichand Pullela is an Indian badminton player, who mainly participates in the women’s double and mixed doubles category in various badminton tournaments. In 2022, she qualified for the Commonwealth Games organised in Birmingham, England.

• She followed the footsteps of her parents, and at the age of 7, she started playing badminton. In an interview, she shared how she thought of making a career as a badminton player. She said,
  

  At first I used to play only for fun, but then I started liking it. And my parents also wanted me to play.”

• She then participated in various junior badminton tournaments and won various matches.

• By the age of 15, she became India’s No. 1 in Badminton in the under-17 age group. She then participated in the Asian Games (2018) held in Jakarta.

• In 2019, she won her first silver medal in the women’s singles category at the South Asian Games (2019) in Nepal.

• In the early 2020s, she met Treesa Jolly at Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy, Hyderabad. After watching the game style of Treesa and Gayatri, Pullela and Arun Vishnu (badminton coach) decided to team up the girls for women’s mixed doubles. The duo participated in various badminton tournaments and bagged many medals.

  

• Some of the tournaments in which she has participated are:

1. 2018: Asian Games
2. 2022: Yonex-Sunrise India Open
3. 2022: Perodua Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
4. 2022: Totalenergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals, Bangkok, Thailand
5. 2022: Yonex Swiss Open, Basel, Switzerland
6. 2022: Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships, Birmingham, England
7. 2022: Yonex Gainward German Open, Muelheim An Der Ruhr, Germany
8. 2022: Odisha Open, Cuttack, India
9. 2022: Syed Modi India International, Lucknow, India
10. 2022: Yonex-Sunrise India Open, New Delhi, India

• During an interview, while talking about her parents, she said,
  

  He is very strict with everyone, even me, when on court. However, off the court, he is very nice. We laugh a lot together. Mom is strict off the court. I used to go with dad for matches and that’s how I started. Then, I slowly took a liking to it and began playing it seriously.”

• In her leisure time, she loves to watch Hindi & English films, listen to music, sing, and dance.