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In fact, since the beginning of the 2011 season right up to now, barring the World Championships bronze, she has not gotten past the third round in a single Super Series event in either the doubles or the mixed doubles (doubles with Ashwini Ponnappa and mixed doubles with V. Diju). And she entered 28 tournaments in that time period – a huge drought.
The gold medal winners from the CWG – Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta
She was one of the six icon players in the inaugural Indian Badminton League and was picked up by the Delhi franchise. As captain, she played one game of mixed doubles (the first) and did not feature after that citing injury.
Over this same period, controversy has followed Jwala around like her shadow. Tripping and tumbling, from one controversy to the next, Jwala has even earned the tag of the ‘controversy queen’ of Indian badminton.
The charge-sheet
First came the news about her dating former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin in 2010 before the Commonwealth Games, at a time when Azhar was set to separate from his wife Sangeeta Bijlani. It was also a few months before Jwala split with her husband Chetan Anand, a badminton player himself and Arjuna awardee.
Those rumours were quashed by both Jwala and Azharuddin, with Jwala even going on to say that it had all been started by someone from the BAI in an effort to malign her.
She made news again a few months down the line when she was spotted going out with Azhar’s son Asaduddin at many a social gathering and even store launches in her hometown of Hyderabad. She even snapped at a photographer who was attempting to click pictures of the two at an IPL after-party.
A source from the BAI had this to say on the issue at the time, “We always knew that she was going out with Azharuddin, but if she has been spotted with his son Asaduddin too often, then I don’t know…”
No matter the outcome, the two stories featuring father and son made her grab quite a few headlines garnering plenty of attention.
Post the 2012 London Olympics came the news of her indefinite ‘game break’ during which she planned to get into movies and pursue some other interests of hers. She went on to do an item song in a Telugu movie called Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde and went on to appear in a few fashion shows as well.
She also got embroiled in a massive row in which she wasn’t even the prime party. Young badminton player Prajakta Sawant kicked things off when she claimed that there existed a huge bias in the national selection policy thanks to national coach Pullela Gopichand who she said was favouring players from his academy whilst ignoring the others.
Jwala Gutta made her two cents on the issue known and escalated the issue into a massive row. She came out in support of Prajakta and said favouritism and politics had hurt the game in the country. She lashed out at Gopichand and questioned how the national coach could also operate a private academy simultaneously.
