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On the second day of the BWF World Tour Super 300 Barcelona Spain Masters, Ashwini Ponnappa, who was returning to action after many weeks of absence due to an injury, suffered a disappointing 21-18, 21-14 loss in the women’s doubles category with her partner N Sikki Reddy against the Bulgarian pair of Gabriela Stoeva and her sister Stefani Stoeva.
But the doubles specialist is looking at the positive side of things and shared a tweet where she expressed her feelings and revealed her future plans.
“Tough loss against the Stoeva sisters today. My first tournament in two and a half months. Glad that my knee and calf were alright and held up. Got 10 days to train until the next tournament. Shall keep positive, look after my body and fight again."
The former World Championship Bronze medalist had to miss the Premier Badminton League and also the preceding tournaments. She even visited a high-performance training center in Austria during her convalescence.
Her pairing with Reddy has been in active for quite some time but it would be interesting to see whether they can improve their results in the coming days. In this tournament, Ponnappa only took part in the women’s doubles category, but in the next tournament – the German Open Super 300 – she is scheduled to return to mixed doubles action also.
Her first match in that tournament, in the women’s doubles, is currently listed against Baek Ha Na and Jung Kyung Eun of South Korea. In mixed doubles, she would team up with her usual partner Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and take on Denmark’s Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Boje.
Both matches are going to be tough as the Korean and Danish pairs are decent opponents. Let’s see whether she can come good in Germany.
