New Delhi: India’s Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand assured themselves of a medal at the World Championships with a come-from-behind win over China’s Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian in the women’s doubles quarterfinal here on Friday.
The unseeded Indian pair, which is on a comeback trail after Treesa recovered from an injury, toiled for one hour nine minutes to produce one of the biggest wins of their career, a 16-21 21-15 21-13 triumph to cruise to the last four stage and be assured of at least a bronze medal.
India last claimed a BWF World Championships medal in women’s doubles in 2011, when Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa won the bronze in London.
“We were trying our best. But after the first game, we changed our tactics. It was a bit tricky in the beginning. But I think we were calm and managed to win,” Gayatri said.
Treesa credited the advice of chief coach Pullela Gopichand to remain composed and stay in the present for helping them negotiate pressure situations.
“He always said just calm down and be in the present moment. I think that really worked today. I think that’s the kind of advice we got behind us,” she said.
Gayatri said there was no specific plan to target one particular opponent, but admitted the pair were deliberately trying to keep their legs moving and remain patient.
“I think nothing like that. We don’t want to reveal too much of the strategy. I think we were just rotating. We just wanted our legs to move and just to be calm on court,” she said.
Treesa admitted the significance of the victory only truly sank in when they reached the final stages of the deciding game.
“I think when we got last 21 points. Because with those kind of players, it’s like when you actually win, that time only we will actually process that,” she said.
“I think right now, just processing this one, we are going to the semi-finals and being on the podium. But it’s not finished yet. This is not the ending. We came here with a goal.”
Satwik-Chirag pair bows out
Star Indian men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s dream of winning a third Worlds medal ended with a straight-game loss to China’s world No. 3 Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang in the quarterfinal.
The world No. 5 Indians, who have won bronze medals at the 2022 and 2025 editions, lacked the required sharpness and crashed to an
18-21 9-21 loss in just 36 minutes against Wang and Liang, the Paris Olympics silver medallists.