BWF Worlds: Treesa-Gayatri bag crucial win to stay in semis race

The Indian women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand defeated the Malaysian combination of Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan in straight games in their second Group A tie to keep alive their semi-final hopes at the BWF World Tour Finals in Hangzhou on Thursday.

Treesa and Gayatri, the only Indians to have qualified for the season-ending tournament, beat their opponents 21-19, 21-19 in just 46 minutes to stay afloat in the competition.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Indians had lost to world No.1 Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning of China in their opening

group match.

Treesa and Gayatri had lost 20-22, 22-20, 21-14 to Sheng and Tan, who had claimed a silver medal at the Paris Olympics.

The Indians are currently placed second behind the Chinese and will need to win against the Japanese pairing of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida on Friday to book their semis spot.

Treesa and Gayatri started on an aggressive note and surged to a 6-2 lead in the opening game before the Malaysians roared back and it went neck-and-neck after that.

But the Indians kept their composure in the final stages to pocket the first game.

The second game too was a close affair till the first five points before the Malaysians took a slender lead.

It was again a tight battle till 19 points but the Indians once again held their nerves and pocketed two consecutive points to seal the match.