Lucknow: India’s women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won their first Super 300 title by defeating the Chinese pair of Bao Li Jing and Li Qian in straight games at the Syed Modi International badminton tournament.
Treesa and Gayatri, who have qualified for the season-ending World Tour Finals in China, defeated their Chinese rivals 21-18, 21-11 in just 40 minutes. The win is historic for the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist pair as Treesa and Gayatri became the first Indian women’s doubles pair to win the title at the tournament. The pair were runners-up in the 2022 edition. The Indian pair started strongly and took a 4-0 lead in the opening game.
However, Bao and Li made a comeback and the match became very close at 14-14. Mistakes by the Chinese players put the Indians ahead 17-15. Gayatri’s nimble shots at the net helped the Indian pair get two game points and they won the first game.
In the second game, Treesa and Gayatri took a 11-5 lead at the break. The Indians extended the lead to 18-7 with consecutive brilliant rallies. Gayatri’s powerful smash earned her 11 match points and the Indian pair won the title. India’s men’s doubles pair of Prithvi Krishnamurthy Roy and Sai Pratik and mixed doubles team of Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila finished as runners-up. Prithvi and Sai put up a strong fight in the men’s doubles final that lasted 71 minutes but lost to China’s Huang Di and Liu Yang 14-21, 21-19, 17-21.
Earlier, the fifth seeded Tanisha and Dhruv pair lost 21-18 14-21 8-21 to Thailand’s Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Supisara Paewsampran in the mixed doubles final after losing a game lead. Prithvi and Sai had tied the match 8-8 in the first game but the rival pair won the first game. Coming back in the second game, the Indians took a 11-7 lead at the break and won the game to level the score at 1-1. In the deciding game, the Indian pair recovered from 1-5 to level the score at 7-7 thanks to Sai’s powerful smash. But despite reducing the gap to 17-18, the Chinese pair kept their composure and won the match.
In the mixed doubles final, Tanisha and Dhruv were leading 6-0. But the Thai pair made a comeback and increased their lead to 14-12. Both the pairs were then tied at 18-18. Tanisha took advantage of the weak return of the opponent player at a crucial moment and the first game went in the Indians’ bag. In the second game, Dechapol and Supisara made a comeback and took a 11-6 lead and took the match to the deciding game. Taking advantage of the mistakes of the Indian pair in the third game, the Thai pair managed to take a 11-5 lead at the break and then won the match.
