File photo of Treesa Jolly (left) and Gayatri Gopichand.© X/@bwfmedia
Indian women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand missed out on a semifinal spot at the BWF World Tour Finals after losing to Japan’s Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida in straight games in their third and final group A match in Hangzhou on Friday. Treesa and Gayatri, who won their maiden BWF Super 300 title at Syed Modi International in Lucknow recently, lost 17-21 13-21 to their world number 4 opponents in 49 minutes. It was the fourth defeat for the Indian pair against the Paris Olympics bronze medallists Japanese rivals in five meetings. World number 13 Treesa and Gayatri, the only Indians to have qualified for the prestigious season-ending tournament, needed a win to secure a spot in the knockout stage of the tournament.
On Wednesday, the Indians had narrowly lost to world No.1 pair Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning of China in their opening group match before stunning the Malaysian duo of Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan in their second match to keep their hopes alive.
But the Japanese pair proved too hot to handle for the Indian duo, who stayed level with Matsuyama and Shida till 5-5.
Thereafter, the Japanese pair zoomed ahead and a six-point burst took them to 18-10. Treesa and Gayatri narrowed down the deficit to 17-19 but Matsuyama and Shida prevailed.
After the change of sides, Treesa and Gayatri had a slender 4-2 lead but Matsuyama and Shida turned the tables quickly and entered the break with a four-point advantage.
The Japanese pair kept a firm grip on the rallies and slowly and steadily kept moving ahead to eventually shut the door on the Indians.
Matsuyama and Shida joined the Chinese pair of Sheng Shu and Ning in the semifinal stage of the tournament.
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