Treesa-Gayatri storm into the World Championships quarter-finals
Satwik-Chirag survive a thrilling three-game battle
India’s doubles pairs keep the medal hopes alive after singles exits
India’s singles campaign was left bruised on Thursday. PV Sindhu’s bid for a sixth World Championships medal ended in defeat, while Ayush Shetty’s impressive run was halted by Alwi Farhan.
For a home crowd that had watched both carry India’s biggest singles hopes, the exits hurt. The Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium fell quiet, the disappointment lingering long after the final shuttles had landed.
With India’s singles campaign bruised, the doubles pairs stepped up to put some ice on the wounds.
Treesa-Gayatri Put India Back On Its Feet
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand were the first to provide a reason for the home crowd to believe again.
The world No. 39 pair produced a sharp and increasingly aggressive display to defeat Japan’s seventh seeds Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi 21-16, 21-12 in 44 minutes and reach the World Championships quarter-finals.
The opening game was closely fought, with the pairs locked at 16-16. But that was when Treesa and Gayatri found another gear.
They began to turn the tide by attacking with greater purpose, moving the Japanese around and denying them the long, patient exchanges they thrive on. At 16-16, Treesa and Gayatri found the opening they had been waiting for, ripping off five points in a row to take the first game.
The change was not merely about adding more power. Gayatri, usually the player who owns the forecourt, spent more time operating from the back, while Treesa moved forward more frequently. The role reversal gave the Japanese another problem to solve and made the Indians’ attack far less predictable.
“We were attacking a lot more in the second half of the first game and the second game. So I think it worked in our favour,” Gayatri said.
The straight-game victory also ended a long wait for Indian women’s doubles at the Worlds.
Treesa and Gayatri became the first Indian women's doubles pair since Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa in 2015 to reach the quarter-finals. More importantly, they are now one win away from guaranteeing India another World Championships medal.
Satwik-Chirag Put The Crowd Back On Its Feet
Later in the evening, the burden of keeping India’s medal hopes alive shifted to Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. And they made sure the home crowd got its money’s worth.
For 82 minutes, the fifth seeds were dragged through a bruising contest by Malaysia’s Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap before escaping 21-23, 21-19, 21-17.
This was not Satwik-Chirag at their devastating best. It was Satwik-Chirag at their most stubborn.
Satwik’s shoulder, already carrying the threat of surgery after the tournament, was visibly troubling him. The Malaysians knew it too. They kept probing the injury, forcing him to stretch and making every powerful swing look like a calculated risk.
Yet whenever Satwik saw an opening, he went for it.
Chirag, meanwhile, quietly took on more of the workload. He covered both ends of the court, absorbed the pressure and repeatedly tried to keep the Malaysians from turning Satwik’s physical discomfort into the match’s defining story.
India had been in control at 16-12 in the opening game, only to watch the advantage disappear. Arif and Yap won the crucial exchanges and stole the game 23-21.
The second game threatened to follow the same script. At 16-18, the Indians were three points from elimination.
But the Delhi crowd did not leave them.
And the Indians did not leave the contest.
They fought their way back into the second game, forced a decider and then found themselves trailing 12-15 again. It was another moment when the Malaysians could have closed the door.
Instead, experience took over.
Chirag kept pressing forward. Satwik chose his moments carefully, still willing to unleash the big smash despite the shoulder that was clearly asking him to hold back.
The point at 19-17 was the match in miniature. The Malaysians pounded away at the Indian defence, Satwik and Chirag absorbed the attack, waited for their chance and then flipped the rally on its head. The transition ended with a smash, and the stadium exploded.
The escape was complete soon after.
The reward is another daunting quarter-final. Satwik and Chirag will face third seeds Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang, while Treesa and Gayatri will take on fourth seeds Jia Yifan and Zhang Shuxian.
Neither Indian pair has been handed an easy road to the semi-finals. But neither has to apologise for being there.
India’s singles campaign is over. Sindhu’s sixth World Championships medal will have to wait, while Ayush’s sensational run has ended one round short of the quarter-finals.
The doubles, however, have refused to let the home campaign collapse with them.
