India’s campaign in the Singapore Badminton Open 2024 ended in defeat in the semi-final for Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand in the women’s doubles on Saturday.
Treesa-Gayatri, ranked 30th in the badminton world, went down to world No.4 Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida of Japan 23-21, 21-11 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
The first game was a close match with them Indian badminton players going toe-to-toe with their Japanese rivals. Although the fourth pair of Matsuyama-Shida took an early 8-2 lead, Treesa-Gayatri showed enough resilience to drop a point at 10-9.
Japan’s fourth pair once again took a four-point lead at 16-12, but the Indian shuttlers fought back to restore parity at 16-16.
Both teams gave away the lead in the closing stages of the first game. However, Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida had the final say and closed out the game 23-21.
Treesa-Gayatri were no match for their Japanese opponents in the second game as Matsuyama and Shida took charge of the match with a 13-2 lead.
Treesa and Gayatri, bronze medalists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, improved their performance after the break but making up for the early deficit proved a tough task as the Indians lost the semi-final in 47 minutes.
This was the maiden semi-final appearance for Treesa and Gayatri in a BWF Super 750 tournament.
Treesa-Gayatri had a huge win over All England champions Baek Ha Na and Korea Republic Lee So Hee in the second round before defeating compatriots and Tokyo 2020 bronze medalists Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong in the fourth- finals.
India’s top singles players PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy were ousted from the Singapore Open in the second round on Thursday. Men’s doubles world No. 1 Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy bowed out in the first round.
The next challenge for the Indian shuttlers will be the Indonesia Open BWF Super 1000 tournament starting on Tuesday.