World Championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen advanced to the men’s singles semifinals of the All England Championships after receiving a walkover from Lu Guang Zu on Friday.
The 20-year-old from Almora was joined in the semis but the unlikely women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.
All England Open, Day 3 live: Gayatri-Treesa upset second seeds Lee-Shin, Lakshya into semis
Gayatri-Treesa, ranked 46 in the world, stunned Lee Sohee and Shin Seungchan, world No 2 and world championship silver medallists in three games 14-21, 22-20, 21-15.
At 18-20 down in the second game, it seemed like it was curtains for the Indian pair who had lost the first game too. But they decided to fight on, saved the match points to force the decider and it resulted in a big upset.
In the final game, the Korean pair just couldn’t deal with Jolly’s big smashes from the back and that played a huge role in the Indian pair winning.
Oh how they pulled it off
Treesa Jolly: We don’t have pressure. That is the main thing. We just want to give it our best.
Gayatri Gopichand: We lost the first set, in the second set... we were down 18-20 but we just felt we have to fight. Just one point at a time.
Did you know much about their game? How did you prep?
Treesa: They are good attacking players we know but we didn’t plan that much. We played our best.
How did you feel coming into the big tournament like this?
Jolly: First, I didn’t think we would get entry...
Gayatri: ...but we were happy that we would have the opportunity to play the world’s top players.
Do you feel that now you are in the semis, there might be more expectation?
Gayatri: Definitely yes. But we don’t feel the pressure. We just have to give it our best. Yes, that’s it... just give it our best.
Fifth-seeded Indian pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty gave top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo a big scare in the first game and they even had six game points.
But the Indonesian pair stuck in there and somehow managed to win the game 24-22. They found a better rhythm to take the second game 21-17. The match lasted 47 minutes and extended the H2H record to 11-0 in the favour of the Indonesians.
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