The Indian women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand registered a shock victory over world No 2 pair of Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee in the pre-quarterfinals of the 2024 Singapore Badminton Open Super 750 on Thursday.
“I did not expect to win against them,” said Gayatri after the win.
Treesa echoed the same sentiments adding, “Before the match we thought just go and play the best however we can. Don’t give easy errors.”
The Indians, who recently missed out on the 2024 Paris Olympics qualification, started off strongly as they opened up an 11-8 lead at the first mid-game interval. However, it was just a teaser of what was to come in the 59-minute long contest.
Treesa-Gayatri came out all guns blazing post the break and forced their opponents into a shell. The South Koreans could only muster only a single point thereafter in the first game as the world No 30 pair pocketed it 21-9.
The change of ends post the first game brought about some change in fortunes for Baek and Lee as they opened up an 11-8 lead after being level at 5-5. The second seeds kept their lead intact to eventually win it 21-14 and force a decider.
Having never went past the 11-point mark in the previous two occasions they have faced off against Baek-Lee, a decider in itself seemed to be a big win for Treesa-Gayatri considering their poor run of form in recent times. But they were in no mood to let this chance pass.
The early exchanges in the decider were evenly matched, but Treesa-Gayatri managed to open up a slender 11-9 lead before the change of ends.
Despite playing from the unfavoured end of the court in possibly the most crucial phase of the contest, they mixed up their attack and defense well to draw errors out of Baek and Lee and secure the match 21-9, 14-21, 21-15.
“We were just putting pressure on both of them,” said Gayatri. “We did not want to just defend or just attack. We were just mixing up things.”
Sindhu, Prannoy exit
Meanwhile, the two Indian singles shuttlers PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy bowed out of the competition following hard fought losses.
Up against her nemesis Carolina Marin for the first time since their fiery battle at the Demark Open in October last year, Sindhu started off well winning the first game 21-13 with ease. The Spaniard, however, returned the favour in the next game, pocketing it 21-11 to force a decider.
The final game, in contrast, was closely fought with Sindhu having a slender 11-9 advantage before the change of sides. The double Olympic medallist then pressed on the accelerator to open up a 15-10 lead, but committed multiple errors at the net, failing to properly return two serves in a row as Marin forced her way back into the match.
Sindhu, though, kept her nose ahead with a 19-18 lead, before the 2016 Olympic gold medallist secured the match point at 20-19.
While Sindhu did manage to save that point, her old foe – misjudgement at the backline – once again brought her downfall as she surrendered the decider 20-22 in a 66-minute long contest.
Later, HS Prannoy suffered a 13-21, 21-14, 15-21 loss to Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto in a contest which lasted an hour and 18 minutes to have his campaign in Singapore cut short.
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