India’s Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand mounted a spectacular comeback in the women’s doubles quarter-finals of the Singapore Badminton Open 2024 to stun the Republic of Korea’s Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong on Friday.
Treesa-Gayatri, 30th in the world badminton rankings, bounced back from being a game down to beat Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medallists Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong 21-18, 19-21, 22-24 in 79 minutes.
The spectacular win over the current world No. 6 pair saw the Indian badminton players advance to their maiden semi-finals of a BWF Super 750 tournament.
Treesa and Gayatri will face either eighth-seeded Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti of Indonesia or fourth seeds Nami Matsuyama-Chihara Sida of Japan in their top-four clash on Saturday.
The contest began with both pairs going toe-to-toe. Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee held a slender 15-14 lead at one point but stepped up to take the first game.
Treesa-Gayatri started the second game on a positive note and led 7-3 at one point. However, their Korean opponents managed to claw their way back and regained a sizeable 18-12 lead.
Despite staring at the brink of elimination, the Indian pair managed to unsettle the sixth-seeded Korean duo by taking five consecutive points to make it 18-17. Treesa-Gayatri kept their composure to secure the second game 21-19 and forced a decider.
The third game played out similarly to the first where neither pair could pull clear of the other early on. Treesa-Gayatri managed to take a crucial 18-15 lead but Kim-Kong restored parity at 19-19 before they were both tied at 21-21.
With the scores tied at 22-22, the Indian shuttlers dug deep and secured two consecutive points to pull off a stunning comeback victory and march into the semi-finals of the Singapore Open.
The Indian duo had earlier beaten reigning All England champions Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee 21-9, 14-21, 21-15 in the second round.
India’s leading singles players PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy were ousted from the Singapore Open in the second round on Thursday. World No. 1 men’s doubles pair Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy bowed out in the first round.
Treesa and Gayatri are the only Indian badminton players still alive at the Singapore Open.