Badminton
Macau Open 2024: Treesa-Gayatri, Kidambi Srikanth advance to quarters
India had a mixed day at the Macau Open as with only two wins for Indian shuttlers in the round of 16.
Indian shuttlers had a mixed day at the Macau Open Super 300 tournament as they managed only two wins in the pre-quarterfinal matches in Macau, China on Thursday.
Former world no.1, Kidambi Srikanth continued his good run in the tournament and won his match in straight games (21-18, 21-13) against the young compatriot Ayush Shetty and advanced to the quarterfinals.
In the second game, Ayush had a big lead and was looking ahead to force a decider but the experienced shuttler didn't give him a chance and made a comeback(16-16) to finish the match in straight games.
Kidambi will now face the second-seeded Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong for a place in the semifinals tomorrow.
On the other hand, the young women's doubles pairing of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also made it to the quarterfinals after a straight-game (22-20, 21-11) win over Chun Hsun Teng and Chich-Chun Lin of Chinese Taipei.
They had to fight hard in the first game despite comfortably leading 12-5 in the start because they were forced to a deuce by the Taipei pair. But eventually they won the game, 22-20.
In the second game, the Indians learned from their mistakes and didn't give any chance to make a comeback and clinch the game in a dominating fashion, 21-11.
Meanwhile, the youngster Tasnim Mir showed a brilliant game but suffered a hard-fought defeat to last week's finalist Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan in a three-game affair, 17-21, 21-13, 10-21.
The experienced mixed doubles pairing of Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy also exited in the round of 16 with a straight-game (17-21, 14-21) defeat to the Malaysian pair of Wong Tien Chi and Sien Chiew Lim.