Treesa-Gayatri's dream run ends at Singapore Open, loses in semifinal

The Indian women's doubles pairing of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost in the semifinal of the Singapore Open Super 750 on Saturday to end a dream run.

The Indian pair lost to fourth-seeded Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida of Japan in straight games (23-21, 21-11).

Treesa-Gayatri started the first game with two points but then faltered on the net a couple of times to give the lead to the Japanese pair.

Matsuyama-Chida had a lead of 8-2 when the Indian pair started making a comeback as the Japanese pair faltered. Brilliant winners from Gayatri, coupled with mistakes from the Japanese duo, made it 9-11 at the mid-game break.

After the mid-game break, Matsuyama-Chida took a big lead of 16-12 but powered by the powerful winners of Treesa, the Indian pair made it 16-16 in no time.

The counter-attacking continued from the Indian pair as they took a couple of points to make 20-20. But the Japanese pair won the first game with a winner.

In the second game, the Indian pair looked clueless as they trailed 2-11 at the mid-game break. They eventually got some points in the later half but the Japanese pair had a big enough lead to win 21-11.

After missing out on the 2024 Paris Olympics, it was a good run for the Indian pair as they defeated world number two in the pre-quarter-finals and world number six in the quarter-finals.