Badminton
Hong Kong Open: Treesa-Gayatri, Ashwini-Tanisha lose in 2nd round; Indian campaign ends
While Treesa-Gayatri lost to world no. 8 Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti in straight games, Ashwini and Tanisha also suffered an identical loss to world no. 7 Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara.
World no. 23 Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will be playing at the French Open next week. (Source: BAI)
India's campaign at the Hong Kong Open Super 500 ended on Thursday after both remaining women's doubles pairings of Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand and Ashwini Ponnappa-Tanisha Crasto lost their Round of 16 matches at Hong Kong Coliseum in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
While world no. 18 Treesa-Gayatri lost to world no. 8 Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti in straight games (21-8, 21-14), Ashwini and Tanisha also suffered an identical loss (21-16, 21-14) to Japan's world no. 7 Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara.
This was Treesa and Gayatri's seventh second round in 2023. They also made five Round of 32 exits this year. Their best performance was a semifinal finish at the All-England Open.
A second-round exit before the Asian Games will certainly take a toll on their confidence. In fact, in two back-to-back tournaments, no Indian shuttler could proceed to the quarterfinals. Last week, at the China Open, all Indian shuttlers lost in the first round.
Ashwini-Tanisha, who upset the world no. 21 Lee Chia Hsin and Teng Chun Hsun in the first round after making the grade playing through the qualifiers, will also be in action at the Asian Games. This week, they broke into the top 50.
Ashwini, however, lost in the first round in her mixed doubles match in partnership with B Sumeeth Reddy.
On Wednesday, top men's singles player Lakshya Sen pulled out of the tournament. Lakshya, the eighth seed, was the highest-ranked men's singles player in the Hong Kong Open draw in the absence of world no. 7 HS Prannoy.
Priyanshu Rajawat, the second Indian men's singles player in contention, lost to Kanta Tsuneyama.
Another mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy lost against Hee Yong and Tan Wei of Singapore 19-21, 10-21. In men's doubles, the only Indian pair competing at the event Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala lost their first-round match against Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol of South Korea 14-21, 19-21.
In women's singles, Aakarshi Kayshap and Malvika Bansod also made a first-round exit.
