Lucknow, Dec 1: The Indian pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand retained the women’s doubles crown but Kidambi Srikanth’s hopes of snapping an eight-year title drought went up in smoke as he suffered a heartbreaking loss in the final of the Syed Modi International Super 300 here Sunday.Former winner Srikanth, a 2021 world championships silver medallist, went down 16-21 21-8 20-22 to world No. 59 Jason Gunawan of Hong Kong in a 67-minute thriller.
The 32-year-old last won a title in 2017 at the French Open and came close earlier this year, finishing runner-up at the Malaysia Masters Super 500.
Defending champions Treesa and Gayatri, however, produced an attacking masterclass to rally from a game down and outwit the world No. 35 pair of Japan’s Kaho Osawa and Mai Tanabe 17-21 21-13 21-15 in a pulsating one hour and 16-minute final.
“We were prepared for a long match, we knew the match would go on for an hour at least because the opponents are Japanese. First set was not that great but we changed strategy and there was lot of attacking rallies and it all worked,” Gayatri said.
They were playing only their second event since Gayatri’s return from a five-month shoulder injury layoff.
“I hadn’t played a lot in last few months, so this tournament is a big boost for me for the season ahead, so I am very happy,” said Gayatri, adding that World Tour events in Malaysia and India are the next targets.