Singapore Open: Treesa-Gayatri keeps Indian hopes alive after upsetting Baek-Lee
The rising Indian women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand stunned world number two Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee of South Korea to enter the quarterfinals at Singapore Open here on Thursday. Double Olympic medallist Sindhu had blew away 18-15 lead in the decider to go down to familiar rival Marin in a thrilling 21-13 11-21 20-22 women’s singles last-16 match. It was Sindhu’s sixth loss on the trot against her arch-rival dating back from 2018. But the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist duo of Treesa and Gayatri kept the Indian flag flying by eliminating Baek and Lee 21-9 14-21 21-15 in close to one-hour battle. This was world number 30 Indian duo’s maiden win from three meetings against the world number two Korean pair. They will be up against another South Korean pair — sixth seed Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong — in the quarterfinal of the BWF World Tour Super 750 event. The Indian duo had lost to the Korean pair at the Hangzhou Asian Games pre-quarterfinals last year. The Baek-Lee duo was error prone as Treesa and Gayatri held a commanding 18-9 lead before taking the opening game without much fuss. But the Indians allowed the South Koreans to bounce back, committing unforced errors in the second game as the match went to the deciding third game. The rival pairs exchanged some powerful smashes and were locked 8-all before the Indian duo took a slender two-point lead at the final mid game break. They continued to play with aggression and reeled off six points on succession to make it 16-9 and seal a memorable win. In the men’s singles, world No. 10 HS Prannoy, seeded eighth, lost to Kenta Nishimoto, ranked 11th in the world, of Japan 13-21, 21-14, 15-21 in a 45-minute match. This was the Indian’s fourth defeat against the Japanese from six matches. Published On: May 30, 2024
