Ashwini Ponnappa Machimanda (born 18 September 1989) is an Indian badminton player who represents the country at the international badminton circuit in both the women's and mixed doubles disciplines. She had a successful partnership with Jwala Gutta as the pair has won many medals in international events including a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games and bronze medals at the Uber Cup and the Asian Badminton Championships. They were consistently ranked among the top 20 in the BWF World Ranking reaching as high as no. 10. Ponnappa and Gutta also won the bronze medal at the BWF World Championships in 2011, becoming the first Indian pair and women and only the second overall to win a medal at the World Championships.

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Ashwini Ponnappa
Ponnappa in 2010
Personal information
Country	India
Born	(1989-09-18) 18 September 1989 (age 34) Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Residence	Hyderabad, India
Height	1.64 m (5 ft 5 in)
Weight	60 kg (132 lb)
Years active	2007–present
Handedness	Right
Women's & mixed doubles
Highest ranking	10 (WD with Jwala Gutta 20 August 2015) 19 (XD with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy 3 February 2021)
Current ranking	21 (WD with Tanisha Crasto), 109 (XD with B. Sumeeth Reddy) (16 April 2024)
Medal record Women's badminton Representing  India World Championships 2011 London Women's doubles Uber Cup 2014 New Delhi Women's team 2016 Kunshan Women's team Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi Women's doubles 2018 Gold Coast Mixed team 2010 Delhi Mixed team 2014 Glasgow Women's doubles 2022 Birmingham Mixed team 2018 Gold Coast Women's doubles Asian Games 2014 Incheon Women's team Asian Championships 2014 Gimcheon Women's doubles Asia Team Championships 2024 Selangor Women's team South Asian Games 2010 Dhaka Mixed doubles 2010 Dhaka Women's team 2016 Guwahati–Shillong Women's doubles 2016 Guwahati–Shillong Women's team 2010 Dhaka Women's doubles 2016 Guwahati–Shillong Mixed doubles
BWF profile

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Ashwini Ponnappa was born on 18 September 1989 in Bangalore. She was educated at St. Francis Xavier Girls High School, Bangalore and at St. Mary's College, Hyderabad. Her father played hockey for India.^[1] However Ashwini preferred badminton over hockey and started training in badminton.

In 2001, Ashwini Ponnappa won her first national title in 2004 in the sub-junior girls' doubles category. She also won the national title in sub-junior girls' doubles in 2005, and the Junior girls' doubles National title in 2006 and 2007. She won the gold medal in mixed doubles and the team events at the South Asian Games held in 2010. In the 2010 Commonwealth Games, she won the gold medal in Women's Doubles event pairing with Jwala Gutta, making history by winning the first gold medal for India in the event. Gutta and Ponnappa became household names after winning the medal in front of home crowd.^[2]

Later on in 2011 they came up with one of their finest performances when she and Gutta 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 Chinese fifth seeds in the semis in London, thereby winning a bronze in the Badminton World Championship.

She participated in the women's doubles at the 2012 London Olympics. Ponnappa and Gutta lost their opening women's doubles match against the Japanese duo of Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa. They then went on to beat much higher ranked Wen Hsing Cheng and Yu Chin Chien of Chinese Taipei 25–23, 16–21, 21–18 to register their first win in the group stages. Jwala 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 Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa but no action was taken. Following the Olympic Games Jwala went to a temporary sabbatical from the game. Ponnappa then partnered Pradnya Gadre for a brief period of time in 2013 and then re-united with Jwala later in the year. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Ponnappa and Gutta won the silver medal in the women's doubles, losing to a Malaysian pair in the final.^[3] On 29 June 2015, playing with Jwala, they won the Canada Open women's doubles title by defeating the top-seeded Dutch pair of Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek.^[4] She competed with Gutta at the 2016 Olympics, but they lost all three of their group stage matches and therefore did not progress further.^[5] At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Ponnappa was part of the Indian team which won gold in the mixed team event, and won bronze with N. Sikki Reddy in the women's doubles.^[1]

On 24 December 2017, she married businessman and model Karan Medappa.^[6][7]

Women's doubles results with Jwala Gutta against Super Series finalists, World Championships semifinalists, and Olympic quarterfinalists.^[10]