Jwala Gutta (born 7 September 1983) is an Indian badminton player. Beginning in the late 1990s, she represented India at international events in both mixed and women's doubles. She has a total of 316 match wins in both the disciplines—the most by any Indian—and peaked at no. 6 in the world rankings. Gutta has won medals at numerous tournaments on the BWF circuit including a silver at the 2009 Superseries Masters Finals and a bronze at the 2011 World Championships.

Born in Wardha to a Chinese mother and a Telugu father, she began playing badminton at a young age. A fourteen-time National Champion, Gutta played with Shruti Kurien earlier in her career, but found greater international success with Ashwini Ponnappa. The pair consistently figured among the top-twenty in the BWF World Ranking reaching as high as no. 10 in 2015. Gutta is the first badminton player of Indian to qualify for two events in the Olympics–women's doubles with Ponnappa and mixed doubles with V. Diju at London. Gutta is known for her skilled left-handed stroke-play and is one of the very few doubles players to use a forehand service.

Early life and junior career

Jwala Gutta was born on 7 September 1983 in Wardha, Maharashtra and brought up in Hyderabad, Telangana, to a Chinese mother and a Telugu father. Jwala's father, Kranti Gutta, hailed from a family of Leftists from Peddapuliveru in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district. Her mother, Yelan Gutta, was born in China and is a granddaughter of a Gandhian named Zeng. Yelan first came to India in 1977 with her grandfather to visit the Sevagram ashram, where she translated Gandhi's autobiography and other works into the Chinese language. Gutta has a younger sister, Insi Gutta.

Initially inclined towards playing tennis, Gutta shifted to badminton at the insistence of her mother. She was introduced to the national badminton coach S. M. Arif, by her father at the age of four. Arif recommended her to learn gymnastics or swimming for a couple of years before starting training for badminton. Gutta later started training under Arif, at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium.

Gutta started playing badminton at the age of six. Her chief achievement as a youngster was to win the Under-13 Girls Mini National Badminton Championship held at Thrissur, Kerala. In 2000, Gutta (aged 17) won the Junior National Badminton Championship. The same year, she also won the Women's Doubles Junior National Championship and the Senior National Badminton Championship, both in partnership with Shruti Kurien. This association was to last several years, and the pairing of Gutta and Shruti Kurien won the Women's Doubles National title for seven years in succession, from 2002 to 2008.

Playing style

Gutta likes playing aggressive badminton and has a great affinity for the front court, with her skilled netplay, good anticipation and the ability to play deceptive strokes at the net. She is considered very dangerous in the front court with her good reading of the game and sharp interceptions. She also has a strong smash from the back court and often makes use of deceptive drops. Gutta is vulnerable in a few areas of her game, most evidently in her movement across the court. She can commit certain unforced errors when forced to move out of her favoured positions. She has also had some fitness issues and injury troubles in her long career. Gutta is also known for being one of the only top doubles player to still use the forehand service, since most other doubles specialists opt for the safer backhand serve. She stands unique in this aspect.

Performance in women's doubles

Early years: 2002–09

Gutta partnered Shruti Kurien-Kanetkar during the early part of her career for the women's doubles competition. The duo reached the semi-final round of their second international tournament itself, the India Asia Satellite tournament 2002. They also reached the semi-final round of the same tournament in the year 2004, and finished runner-up at the Le Volant d'Or Tournament, known as Toulouse Open the same year. Further, she reached the Final Rounds of the Scottish International tournament 2004 and 40th Portuguese Badminton Championship 2004. In the year 2006, she won the Sri Lanka International Satellite tournament; while in the year 2007, she won the Cyprus Badminton International tournament. The same year, she also won at the Pakistan International Challenge tournament and the Indian International Challenge tournament. Apart from these achievements, Gutta won the Nepal International Series tournament 2008 and Yonex Dutch Open Grand Prix 2008 in the Women's Doubles category.

2010: Commonwealth Gold and breakthrough

Gutta then split with her longtime partner Shruti Kurien due to compatibility issues. She then paired up with young Ashwini Ponnappa from Bangalore who was called up for the national camp just before the Commonwealth Games. She and Ponnappa then went on to win the sensational gold medal in the women's doubles at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games making history of winning the first gold medal for India in the event. They beat much higher ranked Singaporean pair of Shinta Mulia Sari and Yao Lei in the finals 21–15, 21–19 in front of the cheering home crowd and set the stadium ablaze with their win. Gutta and Ponnappa then became household names after winning the medal in front of home crowd. Since, their Gold Medal effort at the games they brought women's doubles into limelight in the country.

After the win Gutta at a press conference stated, “It's unbelievable. I think it was long pending for me. I am quite emotional. The feeling is yet to sink in. Ashwini played exceptionally well and we hope to continue the good work, I want to dedicate the medal to my family who stood by me, my coaches, especially SM Arif, Atik Jauhari and all the team members, Gopi. I owe this medal to all who helped me,” and added that “This medal will silence my critics. This is my answer to them to whatever happened. I am very happy and everyone who has negative thoughts about me, I would like to say just shut-up now,”

2011: World Championships bronze

In 2011, they came up with one of their finest performances when the pair etched their names in history books becoming the first Indian pair to ensure a medal at the World Badminton Championships. The pair defeated 12th seeds Vita Marrisa and Nadya Melati of Indonesia 17–21, 21–10, 21–17 to storm into the women's doubles semifinal before losing out to the Chinese fifth seeds in the semi-finals in London, thereby winning a bronze in the Badminton World Championship. They had previously beaten Poon Lok Yan and Tse Ying Suet of Hong Kong 19–21, 21–17, 21–19 in Round of 16. Also, in the second round they had caused a big upset by beating the 2nd seeds and former World Num 1s. Cheng Wen-hsing Chien Yu-chin of Chinese Taipei 21–18 21–18. In a 2016 report published by Sportskeeda, the feat was ranked as the fifth greatest achievement of Indian badminton.

2012: London Olympics

She played women's doubles as well as mixed doubles at the 2012 London Olympics becoming the first and the only Indian to qualify in two events in the entire history of the game. Gutta pairing with Ashwini Ponappa lost their opening women's doubles match against the Japanese duo of Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa. They then went on to beat the much higher ranked Cheng Wen-hsing and Chien Yu-chin of Chinese Taipei 25–23, 16–21, 21–18 to register their first win in the group stages. Gutta and Ashwini missed out on a quarterfinal berth by a difference of just one point, even though they beat Shinta Mulia Sari and Lei Yao of Singapore 21–16 21–15 in their last group B match, after tying with Japan and Taipei on the number of wins. Prior to India's final group game on Tuesday night, the World number five Japanese pair of Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa had shockingly lost to Chinese Taipei's Cheng Wen Hsing and Chien Yu Chin, ranked 10th, 19–21 11–21. India lodged a formal protest with the Games organizers to probe if the women's doubles badminton match involving Japan and Chinese Taipei was played in the right spirit, following the elimination of medal hopes Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa but no action was taken. Following the Olympic Games, Gutta went to a temporary sabbatical from the game.

2013: Comeback and IBL

In January 2013, Gutta announced her comeback to the game and partnered Prajakta Sawant since Ponnappa was partnering with Pradnya Gadre and had committed to continue her partnership with Gadre so went on play with Sawant, who at that time was going through a battle against national coach Pullela Gopichand.[26] Indian Badminton League (IBL) was announced the same year.
IBL was a franchise league commercially managed by an Indian sports rights management company, Sporty Solutionz as commercial partners. With the brand value of US$1 million, Indian Badminton League was the richest badminton league in the world. Gutta was one of the six marquee players and team captains to be auctioned. The auction itself was not short of controversy. The base price of Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa was halved from US$50,000 to US$25,000, without the players' notice and Women's Doubles event was replaced by a second Men's Singles. This left both Gutta and Ashwini hurt and angry. Gutta was bought for US$31,000 and captained the Delhi franchise, but the team did not reach the semis and finished fifth. Gutta and Ponnappa after IBL confirmed on that they were set to reunite. Gutta went on to add that the two decided to come together because of a couple of reasons. The first was the Indian Badminton League's organisers knocking out the women's doubles category from the tournament, which in turn resulted in the base prices of Gutta and Ashwini.

2014: Asian and Uber Cup bronze, CWG silver

In 2014 Gutta and Ashwini won the bronze medal at Asian Championships in April defeating 3rd seeded Thai pair of Kunchala Voravichitchaikul and Duanganong Aroonkesorn 21–11, 21–18 en route losing out to Chinese twins Luo Ying and Luo Yu at the semi-final stage. The pair played a key role in India's historic Bronze at the Uber Cup in New Delhi. The duo unleashed a giant-killing spree as they had to face much higher ranked opponents in most of their matches and they won each, their biggest win came when outplayed the World No. 9 team of Greysia Polii and Nitya Krishinda Maheswari 21–18, 21–18 from Indonesia in the first doubles match of the tie. The win took India to the semis for the first time in Uber Cup history and assured them of the bronze medal. They later participated at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and narrowly missed the podium finish in the team event came up with the silver medal at the games losing put to Malaysian pair of Vivian Hoo and Woon Khe Wei in a closely contested final. The Indian pair lost the first game 17–21, before going down in a well-fought second game. Gutta and Ponnappa had taken the lead and looked good to take the match into the deciding third game. It was their second medal at the games after the 2010 Gold.

2012 Olympics and sabbatical

Gutta and Diju reached two quarter-finals in 2012 at the Victor Korea Superseries Premier Singapore Open Superseries before competing at 2012 Summer Olympics. Pairing with Diju, Gutta lost her opening match 16–21, 12–21 in just 25 minutes at the Wembley Arena in London Olympics. The pair also lost their next two matches and thus could not qualify for the knockout stage. Despite having enjoyed great success in the Mixed Doubles category, she has shifted her focus on to Women's Doubles event since her sabbatical. In March 2016, Gutta announced a comeback to the mixed category. She stated in her interview that she missed the titles she "used to win with V Diju". She confirmed that she would not play alongside Diju but was a looking for a suitable partner and would start playing in April.

Personal life and other works

During her badminton career, Gutta began dating fellow badminton player Chetan Anand. The couple married on 17 July 2005 and got divorced on 29 June 2011. Her divorce gained unwanted media attention and speculation arose about an affair with ex-cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin which was never confirmed due to lack of any proof and constant denials from Gutta herself. Azharuddin confirmed filing his divorce but denied that it had anything to do with Gutta.

Azhar had also hinted that these stories had been planted by people in the Badminton Association of India, who wanted to tarnish his image since he tried to contest for the presidents' elections. He said, “These are planted stories and motivated by people, who are against me in the Badminton Association of India. They are so upsetting.” In 2013, Gutta said in an interview, “I learnt a lot from the marriage but we weren't growing as a couple. A part of me forgot that I too was a part of the sport. I was satisfied thinking that his victories were our victories.”

Gutta has supported some social causes, including women empowerment issues, anti-tobacco and anti-zoo campaigns. She has also been involved in many other campaigns including the Ice Bucket Challenge, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Gutta also launched the Indian Badminton League's (IBL) school programme 'Shuttle Express' in Pune for school children. Speaking during the briefing, Gutta said: “I am really happy to be here with the kids who are playing not only to win the Shuttle Express but to be the next badminton champion for India. Wishing everyone all the best and I know the Pune participants will make everyone proud.”

In 2013, she made her film debut with a cameo appearance in a song from the Telugu-language film Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde. Jwala describes herself as atheist.

Gutta was reportedly dating Tamil film actor Vishnu Vishal. Both of them posted pictures on their social media, confirming the same, for the New Year 2020. On her birthday in 2020, the couple got engaged. They were married on April 22, 2021, in Hyderabad.