BWF World Championships: Treesa-Gayatri confirm medal as they come from behind to beat Jia-Zhang of China to reach semifinals

India’s Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand assured themselves of a medal at the World Championships with a comefrom-behind win over China’s Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian in the women’s doubles quarterfinal on Friday.

The Indian unseeded pair, which is on a comeback trail after Treesa recovered from an injury, toiled for one hour nine minutes to produce one of the biggest wins of their career, a 16-21 21-15 21-13 triumph to cruise to the last four stage and be assured of at least a bronze medal.

India last claimed a BWF World Championships medal in women’s doubles in 2011, when Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa won the bronze in London.


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“Right now, [we are] just processing this one, that we are going to the semi-finals and being on the podium. But it’s not finished yet. This is not the ending. We came here with a goal,” Treesa said.

The Indians will next face top seeds China’s Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning, but Gayatri said they were refusing to get carried away by the occasion or the identity of their opponents.

“We don’t want to think too much. We don’t want to think about the outcome too much. We just want to get on court first. And then if we are playing well, we just want to keep doing that. And see what happens,” she said.

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The Indians came into the match with a 0-3 head-to-head record against their Chinese opponents.

Treesa and Gayatri fell behind 1-6 early on but fought their way back to 8-9 with six successive points. The Indians continued to fight, staying within touching distance after some excellent rallies. Zhang and Jia, however, moved to 17-14 before closing out the opening game.

After the change of sides, Zhang and Jia carried their momentum into the second game, opening up a 5-1 lead and then moving to 10-7. But the Indians responded with a spirited comeback, turning the tables to move ahead 13-10.

The contest remained tight, with the score reaching 15-14 at one stage. Treesa and Gayatri then produced another decisive burst to open up a 19-14 lead and roar back into the contest.

In the decider, Treesa and Gayatri came out firing, surging to an 11-5 lead before extending it to 14-7 with a flurry of three points that the Chinese simply could not negotiate.

There were a few nervous moments, with Treesa sending one shot into the net and Gayatri committing a service error. But the Chinese could not capitalise. Instead, they began to wilt under pressure, making a series of unforced errors at the net as the home favourites raced to a 17-9 lead.

Gayatri’s fierce flat exchanges with the Jia and Zhang were one of the highlights of the match. The experienced Chinese pair crumbled under the relentless pressure.

“I think we were constantly telling each other it’s not over yet, it’s not over yet. Because we had a huge lead in the third set, but we just kept telling each other it wasn’t over yet,” Gayatri said.