Contrasting games, similar fortunes — the Indian singles campaign at the badminton World Championships ended in heartbreak with P.V. Sindhu and Ayush Shetty bowing out of the competition in the pre-quarterfinals here on Thursday.
The day that started with an Indian victory ended with one but the results in between left the two doubles pairs, one each in men and women, shouldering the host’s hopes in the prestigious tournament.
Treesa Jolly and Gaytri Gopichand advanced to the quarterfinals with a 21-16, 21-12 win against Japan’s Rin Iwanaga & Kie Nakanishi while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, returning to competitive action after almost three months, struggled to find their rhythm before prevailing 21-23, 21-19, 21-17 against Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap of Malaysia.
Sindhu fought her way back into the match after losing the first game and kept pushing hard in the decider before faltering right at the end of the 88-minute long battle, going down 21-11, 15-21, 21-17 to World No. 3 Wang Zhi Yi.
The high-intensity face-off kept the packed, vocal crowd on the edge of their seats all through with neither player willing to concede any quarter.
Wang, playing from the slower side, raced ahead in the opening game and never let her grip slip, her impeccable defence returning everything Sindhu tried to throw at her while using her flat drives and deceptive cross-court drops at crucial moments.
The long rallies that Sindhu had warned about a day before were duly played out — the longest of them being 54 shots even as 40-plus rallies were the norm throughout.
Sindhu hit back after the change of ends, racing to an 8-4 lead before Wang clawed back but unforced errors coupled with Sindhu’s quick returns and shuttle placement saw her lose ground.
The decider stayed level for large parts, the players constantly exchanging the slimmest of leads and staying level right till 15-15, when Wang took a medical time-out for a cramp in her left leg after a failed dive. She came back, took off a couple of points and hobbled again, this time clutching her right thigh. And then she closed out the match.
Earlier Ayush, who had had two wildly different matches before this, failed to capitalise on his chances against Indonesia’s Alwi Farhan to go down tamely 21-19, 21-11. The last time the two had played at the China Open, Ayush had won in three games but on Thursday, the Indonesian raised his game to another level and never allowed Ayush a look in.
In the morning, Treesa and Gayatri extended their dream run, knocking out the seventh-ranked last year’s bronze medalists to reach the quarterfinals for their best ever show in the tournament.
It was a roller-coaster for Treesa and Gayatri in the opening game. They led 13-9 at one point, dropped seven consecutive points to trail 13-16 and then reeled off eight straight points to win 21-16.
The momentum carried on in the second game as the youngsters became the first Indian women’s doubles team to reach the last eight of the Championships after Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa — the only Indian women’s pair to win a medal in the event — since 2015 and raised hopes of a second medal in the category.
As the day came to a close, a rusty Satwik and Chirag, playing their first match of the tournament, failed to convert their chances to concede the first game before regrouping and finding the momentum, then kept going, riding as much on the late-night, packed stands as their own stubbornness to prove a point.
They kept rotating, Chirag shouldering as much of the back court duties and winners as Satwik before taking the decider 21-17.
Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto, meanwhile, lost to China’s Guo Xinn Wa & Chen Fang Hui 21-16, 21-5.
Important results: Men: Victor Lai (Can) bt Loh Kean Yew (Sin) 22-20, 21-18; Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Tha) bt Garret Tan (USA) 21-10, 21-10; Alwi Farhan (Ina) bt Ayush Shetty 21-19, 21-11.
Doubles: Sze Fei Goh & Nur Izzuddin (Mas) bt Hsiang Chieh Chiu & Chi-Lin Wang (Tpe) 21-17, 21-17; Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty bt Junaidi Arif & Roy King Yap (Mas) 21-23, 21-19, 21-17.
Women: An Se Young (Kor) bt Mia Blichfeldt (Den) 21-16, 21-10; Nozomi Okuhara (Jpn) bt Ishika Jaiswal (USA) 21-11, 13-21, 21-12; Wang Zhi Yi (Chn) bt P.V. Sindhu 21-11, 15-21, 21-17.
Doubles: Treesa Jolly & Gayatri Gopichand bt Rin Iwanaga & Kie Nakanishi (Jpn) 21-16, 21-12; Febriana Kusuma & Meilysa Puspitasari (Ina) bt Pearly Tan & Thinaah Muralitharan (Mas) 20-22, 21-18, 21-12.
Mixed doubles: Feng Yan Zhe & Huang Dong Ping (Chn) bt Yuta Watanabe & Maya Taguchi (Jpn) 21-19, 21-18; Dechapol Puavaranukroh & Supissara Paewsampran (Tha) bt Yuichi Shimogami & Sayaka Hobara (Jpn) 17-21, 21-12, 21-17; Guo Xinn Wa & Chen Fang Hui (Chn) bt Dhruv Kapila & Tanisha Crasto 21-16, 21-5.
Published – August 20, 2026 11:42 pm IST
