After ousting the defending and the 2023 All England champions in the previous two rounds, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand were eyeing a three-peat at the Singapore Open Super 750 badminton tournament on Saturday.
They had reason to believe they could do so, having stunned 2022 All England winners Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida in the semi-finals of the Badminton Asia Team Championships that set the tone for India’s title win in February.
But it wasn’t to be as the Japanese world No.4 combine emerged the clearly better pair, qualifying for the final with a 23-21, 21-11 win over Treesa and Gayatri in the women’s doubles semi-finals at the $850,000 tournament in Singapore on Saturday.
Up against a third top-10 pair on the trot, Treesa and Gayatri fell short, losing a third time in four meetings against the formidable fourth seeds who were finalists at this year’s All England Open.
The world No.30 Indian combine took off slowly while the Japanese pair started attacking from the word go which easily took them to 8-2 and then 14-10 in the opening game.
Not having qualified for the Paris Olympics, the pressure was off Treesa and Gayatri. They were eyeing redemption. Egged on by Gayatri’s father and chief national coach Pullela Gopichand from courtside, the pair fought back brilliantly to level the scores at 16-all at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
The Japanese pair showed their class as they reached game point. But the unseeded Indian combine fought valiantly to save three game points before Nami and Chiharu closed out the game.
The second game showed that the Indian pairing had given it their all in the first game and had run out of steam. After the competitive first game, Treesa and Gayatri fell behind badly as they trailed 2-13. Several uncharacteristic errors, both at the net and from the back, started creeping in. In addition, gaps in coordination led to their capitulation after 47 minutes.
This was the Indian pairing’s first semi-final in more than a year, after reaching the last four at the 2023 All England Open. They will play at the Indonesia Open in Jakarta next week.
