Medals for mettle!

Women’s pair of Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand come up with gritty show while men’s singles star Lakshya Sen gets walkover to enter semis and ensure medals at All England Championships

Unseeded Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand on Friday became the first Indian women’s doubles pair to reach the semi-finals of All England championships, joining in-form Lakshya Sen, who too reached the last four round of the men’s singles competition here.

Playing their first Super 1000 event, Treesa and Gayatri, World No.46, recorded the biggest win of their career, a stunning 14-21, 22-20, 21-15 win over world championship silver medallists and second seeds Lee Sohee and Shin Seungchan of Korea.

Lakshya Sen

World Championships bronze medallist Sen had earlier advanced to the men’s singles semi-finals after his opponent Lu Guang Zu of China gave a walkover.

The 20-year-old from Almora, who had secured his maiden Super 500 title at India Open in January and then claimed a runners-up finish at the German Open last week, will face the winner of the match between Malaysia’s sixth seed Lee Zii Jia and Japan’s second seed Kento Momota in the last four round.     

Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand are the only Indians to have reached the semifinals before in the prestigious event.

‘We weren’t under pressure’

“We didn’t have pressure, that was the main thing. They are good attacking players and we didn’t play that much but we gave our best,” Treesa said.

Gayatri, who is the daughter of India’s chief national coach Pullela, said they just tried to give a good fight. “We lost the first game and were down 18-20 in the second game but I just thought we just have to fight,” said Gayatri.

Rankireddy-Shetty lose

Fifth seeded Indian pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, however, failed to cross the quarter-final hurdle losing 22-24, 17-21 to Indonesian top seed 
Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo in 47 minutes.

PV, Saina, Srikanth bow out

On Thursday, PV Sindhu suffered an upset 19-21, 21-16, 17-21 loss to Sayaka Takahashi of Japan, while Saina Nehwal went down fighting against the reigning world champion and World No.2 14-21, 21-17, 17-21. Later, Kidambi Srikanth lost against Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 21-9, 18-21, 19-21, , in a match that lasted for 62 minutes.

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