Treesa-Gayatri pair book berth in pre-quarters

The Indian women’s doubles pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly delivered a stunning performance to storm into the pre-quarterfinals of the ongoing BWF World Championships with a straight-game victory over Chang Ching Hui and Yang Ching Tun of Chinese Taipei on Wednesday. Gayatri and Treesa, who are ranked 19 in the world defeated Chang and Yang 21-18, 21-10 in a match that lasted for 38 minutes. The Commonwealth Games bronze medalists, who earned a bye in the first round, will have a difficult task against top-seeded Chinese Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan in the next round. Early on, Treesa and Gayatri trailed 2-5 but quickly began alternating the strike and lengthening the rallies to elicit errors from their opponent, turning the tide and reaching 8-6. At 8-8, Chang and Yang made a comeback, but the Indian team managed to lead 11-9 at the half after the Taiwanese team sprayed the net three times. Following the restart, Gayatri rose to the front court with much anticipation as India led 14-11. Although Treesa made a few mistakes, the Indian team was able to maintain its lead against the conflicting Taiwanese team. Gayatri and Treesa maintained their lead after switching sides, reaching 8-5 at one point. The Indians went into halftime with a three-point lead thanks to a strong serve return. After the game resumed, Gayatri and Treesa picked up the tempo and improved to 14-8. The Indian pair was given a height-related service fault call, but it made no difference at all as they quickly increased their lead to 19-10 by capitalizing on their opponent’s string of mistakes. Yang’s forehand at the net at the conclusion of a strong rally gave India 10 match points, and they clinched the jmatch after their opponents went wide once again.