Hotshot Pradnya Gadre's star is on the rise

Hyderabad: Even as Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa struggle to recreate the magic of their reborn partnership, youngster Pradnya Gadre is slowly but surely making progress on the country's women's doubles circuit. Pradnya, who hogged the limelight during the Indian Badminton League auction after pocketing a whopping $46,000 bid from Hyderabad Hotshots, lifted the women's doubles and mixed doubles crowns at the just-concluded Tata Open in Mumbai.

Though this was her first inter national mixed doubles title with Akshay Dewalkar, Pradnya and N. Sikki Reddy also won the women's doubles title at the Bahrain International Challenge last month.

“In the final, we were playing against Jwala and Ashwini who are so experienced. I think it was a no-pressure match for us, and that was the key,“ the 23-year-old said.

The shuttler felt her brief partnership with Ashwini earlier in the year, besides the IBL, worked wonders for her. “I learnt a lot from her. Whenever I had problems, I used to discuss with her.
She was really helpful. The IBL was a great experience. Playing alongside players like Taufik (Hidayat) a blessing for all of us.

“This year has been very good, by far the best season in my career. I will now aim to come up with more consistent performances in the upcoming events. I have been playing on the domestic circuit and Challenge events for sometime now, so my focus will be on doing well in Grand Prix events,“ said Pradnya.

With 2014 set to be an important year, Pradnya should be on the Badminton Association of India's radar while naming the squads for the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.