P Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly have not had an easy few months. Although Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto have been the top women's doubles team in the country for the past few years, the new partners beat the world number 30 to reach the Olympics by beating them in the race to Paris. In addition to their recent string of early round exits, the performances of both 21-year-olds have also been underwhelming, leaving them with a dismal 12-9 win-loss record at the $850,000 Singapore Badminton Open.
Treesa and Gayatri, who have shed the burden of qualifying for the Olympics, produced one of the biggest wins of their young careers on Thursday, defeating reigning All England and Asian champions Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee. It was their first win against South Korea's world number two in three meetings. In the women's doubles quarter-finals on Friday, the unseeded Indians maintained their incredible run in the Super 750 tournament by beating fellow South Korean pair Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong, the All England 2023 winners and world number six seeds, 18-21. , 21-19, 24-22. Treesa and Gayatri staged an incredible comeback to go down 12-18 in the second match after losing the first. However, the Indian duo were steadfast in defence and Gayatri's crafty and smart touches at the net yielded several winners to send the match to a decider.
Treesa and Gayatri's fearless approach saw them commandeer the match in one hour and 19 minutes at the Singapore Indoor Stadium to claim their first two-match win against the sixth-seeded Koreans. The third match was as close as ever, with the Olympic bronze medalists needing to save three match points. On Saturday, Treesa and Gayatri will face Japan's fourth seeds Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shifa in the semi-finals, their first match since All England 2023. OPEN. The world number 30 combination has been beaten twice by the All England 2022 winners, but they last faced each other at the Asian Team Championship in February where the Indian combination dominated.