BWF World Tour Finals: Treesa Jolly And Gayatri Gopichand Bounce Back To Win 2nd Match, Keep Semis Hopes Alive

The Indian women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand defeated the Malaysian combination of Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan in straight games in their second Group A tie to keep alive their semifinal hopes at the BWF World Tour Finals in Hangzhou (China) on Thursday.

Treesa and Gayatri, the only Indians to have qualified for the season-ending tournament, beat their opponents 21-19, 21-19 in just 46 minutes to stay afloat in the competition. Earlier on Wednesday, the Indians had lost to world No.1 Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning of China in their opening group match.

Treesa and Gayatri had lost 20-22, 22-20, 21-14 to Sheng and Tan, who had claimed a silver medal at the Paris Olympics. The Indians are currently placed second behind the Chinese and will need to win against the Japanese pairing of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida on Friday to book their semifinal berth.

The second game too was a close affair till the first five points before the Malaysians took a slender lead. It was again a tight battle till 19 points but the Indians once again held their nerves and pocketed two consecutive points to seal the match.