Macau Open badminton: Treesa Jolly, Gayatri Gopichand advance into semifinals; Kidambi Srikanth loses

Hyderabad: Indian badminton doubles players Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand entered the semifinals while Kidambi Srikanth was ousted in the men’s singles category of the ongoing Macau Open Super 300 badminton tournament on Friday.

Treesa and Gayatri, who have been doubles partners for a while now, beat Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Yin-Hui and Lon Jhih Yun 21-12, 21-17 in the women’s doubles quarterfinals while Srikanth lost to Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong 16-21, 12-21.

The Indian doubles pair, who are seeded third in the tournament and ranked 23rd in the world, will meet Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Pei Shan and Hung En-Tzu in the semifinals. The Chinese Taipei pair are seeded eighth.

This will be the second semifinal appearance for Treesa and Gayatri after they finished in the quarterfinals at the Singapore Open 750 badminton tournament in June this year.

Treesa and Gayatri beat the Chinese Taipei of Yin0Hui and Jhih Yun at the German Open earlier this year and looked in fine nick,

Although they had a slow start, trailing the Chinese Taipei pair, but picked up an 8-4 lead. They stretched the lead to 11-7 at the mid-game interval and kept winning points to move into a strong position.

It was then a mere formality for the Indians to pocket the first game.

The second game was more evenly contested with the pairs trading points and matching shot to shot. Treesa and Gayatri then upped the ante when it mattered and went into an 18-14 lead to take advantage and win the match.

Meanwhile, Srikanth, who was returning from an injury he sustained in May this year, was seeded sixth in the tournament but could never get going. A 2021 world championships silver medallist, Srikanth struggled to find and time his shots to perfection and he lost rather meekly in just about 31 minutes to bow out of the tournament.

Ka Long was always a step ahead of the Indian and he quickly went to a 5-0 lead. The Indian did well to restore parity at 10-all and then 15-all but Long won the next seven points, giving Srikanth just one, to win the first game.

The second game also started well for Long with the Hong Kong shuttler opening up 1 5-0 lead. But this time, Srikanth couldn’t crawl back and a plethora of unforced errors also did him in as he lost the plot completely to lose the second game and the match.