“There are more chances of you participating in international events if you are a singles player than if you become a doubles specialist,” reasoned Shruti Kurien, one-half of India’s No.1 women’s badminton pairing along with Jwala Gutta.

“Even a fourth-fifth ranked shuttler can make it to the national team, but there is only that one spot for the doubles, isn’t there? That has kept a lot of players taking to the doubles format,” Shruti said.

Shruti and Jwala won the open event doubles title at the 29th Petroleum Inter-unit badminton tournament on Wednesday, facing little resistance — yet again — in their title defence. It does get lonely at the top, admits the specialist, and at times, a little boring too.

Training issues

“Doubles become important only in team events like Suderman Cup and Uber Cup. And then, it requires both partners to train together which usually doesn’t work out,” she said, reminiscing about her 12-year partnership with 23-year-old fiery Jwala. They won their first sub-junior title in 1997, one year after their collaboration, and in 2001, their first senior national title.

Bangalore-based Shruti has shifted base temporarily to original-base Hyderabad, where she is training for the tournaments leading up to Beijing Olympics.

The duo still has 6000 points to earn — and three qualifying tournaments to go — before dreaming of an Olympic berth. “That, and we hope to improve on our ranking. We have 31,000 points and are at No.26 now, and ideally should try reaching the top 16 if we are to have a real chance of competing in Beijing,” she revealed, as she watched husband Nikhil Kanetkar’s quarter-final match at the Siri Fort sports complex. The couple has met after a two-month gap, with badminton keeping Shruti from home. “I’m meeting him now after January, before that we met on New Year’s, and before that, we met in November,” she grinned. On a day off, she’d rather swim and cycle than anything else — and keeps as little knowledge about cricket and football as possible. “Don’t even ask me who the Indian captain is. I’d be too embarrassed.”