BWF Championship: Treesa-Gayatri lose semifinal to China’s Tan-Liu, settle for historic bronze

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand’s fairy tale run for the finale ended with fighting a three-game loss to world number one and defending champion Liu Shengshu and Tang Ning of China in the women’s doubles semifinals at the World Championship in New Delhi on Saturday. The duo clinched bronze.Producing a sensational start to their maiden game, the unseeded duo failed to maintain the pressure against the mighty Chinese pair, going down 21-18, 13-21, 8-21 in an hour and 11 minutes.The Chinese pair fought back strongly to take the second 21-13 before dominating the decider 21-8 to seal a convincing victory.

Earlier from the Indian side, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty survived a thrilling battle against Malaysia’s Junaidi Arif and Yap Roy King to reach the BWF World Championships quarter-finals.The fifth-seeded Indian pair lose the opening game 23-21, but fight back to win the next two 21-19, 21-17 and complete a hard-fought comeback in their first outing of the tournament.

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

Meanwhile, Chou Tien-chen and Kodai Naraoka are battling it out in the men’s singles semifinal. Chou made a strong start to the contest, clinching the opening game 21-17. However, Naraoka has responded in the second game and currently leads 10-6, putting the Japanese shuttler in a strong position to level the semifinal.