IMAGE: Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand fought back in the third game to beat Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Ya Ching and Lin Wan Ching. Photograph: BAI Media/Twitter
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand progressed to the semi-finals of the Hylo Open Super 300 badminton tournament after a hard-fought win in women’s doubles competition in Saarbrucken, Germany, on Friday.
World No. 28 Treesa and Gayatri prevailed 21-17, 18-21, 21-8 over Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Ya Ching and Lin Wan Ching, ranked 65th, in the quarter-finals to set up a clash with eighth seeds Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard of Thailand.
Top Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a straight-game loss to seventh seeded English pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy 17-21, 14-21 in a last-8 match.
In the women’s singles, Malvika Bansod also was no match to Indonesia’s world number 21 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, going down 17-21, 10-21 in a lop-sided contest.
Kidambi Srikanth will play Indonesian sixth seed Jonatan Christie later in the day.
Para World Championships: India’s para shuttlers ensure 15 medals
Manisha Ramadass and Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan reached the semi-finals of women’s singles and doubles events at the BWF Para Badminton World Championships in Tokyo on Friday.
Ramadass and Sivan, both playing their first Worlds, joined former champion Manasi Joshi who too made it to the semi-finals in the women’s singles SL3 and mixed doubles SL3-SU5 along with Ruthick Ragupathi.
Ramadass first saw off compatriot Shanthiya Viswanathan 21-8, 21-8 and then paired up with Mandeep Kaur, who exited in her women’s singles SL3 event, to beat Joshi and Viswnathan 21-17, 21-15.
On a day when several Indian para shuttlers exited from their events after losing their quarter-final matches, Paralympic champion Krishna Nagar crashed out of the Worlds Championships, going down 21-15, 21-23, 19-21 to England’s Krysten Coombs.
Nagar, however, paired up with Sivan to overcome Hong Kong’s Chu Man Kai and Choi Wing Kei 23-21, 21-18 in mixed doubles. Sivan later teamed up with Rachana Shaileshkumar Patel to beat England’s 15-year-old Anya Butterworth and Egypt’s Yasmina Eissa 21-10, 21-14.
In the women’s singles SH6, Sivan kept her hopes alive, defeating Chinese Taipei’s Cai Yi-Lin 21-13, 21-6 to advance as did Parul Parmar after battling Brazil’s Adriane Spinetti Avila 21-12, 19-21, 21-15.
Paralympic champion Pramod Bhagat led the men’s charge, winning his men’s singles quarterfinal match over Ukraine’s Oleksandr Chyrkov 21-17, 21-19.
Defending champions Bhagat and Manoj Sarkar reached the men’s doubles SL3-SL4 semi-finals with a bye.
Sarkar, meanwhile, overcame a second game scare to defeat France’s Mathieu Thomas 21-15, 12-21, 9-21 in the men’s singles SL3 quarter-finals and booked a clash with compatriot Nitesh Kumar who pulled off an easy win against William Smith 21-8, 21-12.
In men’s singles SL4, Sukant Kadam pulled off a spirited 21-10, 21-15 win over Singapore’s Chee Hiong Ang. Kadam next faces Fredy Setiawan, the Paralympic bronze medallist from Indonesia.
Among others, Chirag Baretha and Raj Kumar, Hardik Makkar and Ruthick Ragupathi advanced to men’s doubles SU5 semi-finals.
Sivarajan Solaimalai fought his heart out before losing 21-19,19-21, 21-19 to England’s top player Jack Shephard, while Prem Kumar Ale and Abu Hubaida also exited after fighting for 1 hour 22 minutes against France’s Thomas Jakobs and David Toupe 21-18, 11-21, 23-21.
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