The Indian women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand did the unthinkable. Backed by the capacity crowd, they upset the fourth-seeded Chinese pair of Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian to reach the semifinals of the BWF World Championships.
This win means they have assured India of at least a bronze medal at the event. They have also become the second women’s duo from India, after Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, to medal at the prestigious tournament. Jwala and Ashwini had won a bronze medal at the 2011 edition.
The upset win over the Chinese also ensures that the Indian streak of winning at least one medal in the World Championships will continue. Treesa and Gayatri came back from a game down to beat Jia and Zhang 16-21 21-15 21-13.
The Indians trailed 0-6 and 2-8 in the opening game but shifted to a more attacking style to win six straight points to close the gap at 8-9. The Chinese, however, kept themselves ahead and closed out the game.
In the second game, the Chinese again led 10-7. But the Indian duo then started to create openings with deft net-play before finishing off with cross-court smashes. Their interplay flummoxed the Chinese duo, and Treesa and Gayatri won 21-15 to take the match to the third game.
Despite trailing 1-4 at the start of the decider, the Indians went for an all-attacking game plan and won eight straight points to take a 9-4 lead. From then on, the Chinese wilted under constant pressure and yielded after Jia sent her lift wide to assure the home favourites of a medal.
“The match was very difficult and hence the emotions. We are still processing the result and really happy that we converted it into a win. We do not want to stop here, we have come here with a goal and looking forward. The crowd was amazing today and pushed us towards the win,” Treesa said.
Treesa and Gayatri will take on another Chinese pair, top seeds Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning, in the semifinals on Saturday. Gayatri said they will want to take this momentum to Saturday’s game.
“We do not want to think about the outcome too much. We just want to get on court first. I think we are playing well and we just want to keep doing that and see what happens,” Gayatri said.
It was a different story in the men’s doubles event as Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were beaten 21-18 21-9 by China’s Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang in the quarterfinals.
The opening game was very competitive, with both pairs looking for kill shots to get the points. However, the Indians lost an advantageous position. Trailing 15-18, the Chinese duo won six straight points to win the first game.
In the second, the Indian pair was simply blown away, committing too many errors, including three service errors, to lose 9-21.
Meanwhile, the men’s singles category will have a new world champion after second seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand was knocked out by Frenchman Alex Lanier in the quarterfinals. Kunlavut, the only former champion left in the draw, was beaten 19-21 21-16 21-16. The Frenchman will next face Canada’s Victor Lai, who beat Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke 21-19 21-18.