Treesa-Gayatri's semi-final run at Singapore Open underscores their emerging supremacy in world badminton

NEW DELHI: India's rising women's badminton stars Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly once again underlined their prowess on the world stage as they became the first Indian women players to reach the semi-final stage of a BWF Super 750 tournament in Singapore this week. Treesa and Gayatri, ranked 30th in the world, upset world no 2 combinations of Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee of South Korea in the pre-quarters and then fought back from a losing position to pack off the sixth seed and Olympic and world championship bronze medallists Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong in the quarterfinals at the Singapore Open badminton tournament.

In the semi-finals, the only unseeded combination to make this far went down 21-23, 11-21 against fourth seed Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida on Saturday but that should hardly take away the importance of their dream run in the island nation. Having missed out on the Paris Olympic berth in parts due to injury concerns to Gayatri and the exceptional run of results by the experienced Ashwini Ponnappa and her young partner Tanisha Crasto, the former national champions were in a way seeking redemption in this Asian swing and showed why they were still a force to reckon with.

Treesa and Gayatri are also the only Indian women doubles pair to reach the semi-finals of the BWF Super 1000 events when they reached the last four stage of the prestigious All England Championship consecutively in 2022 and 2023. Earlier this year, the duo had played an important role in helping Indian women's team win their first-ever Badminton Asia Team Championship title by winning all the matches they featured in.

It was their victory over Matsuyama and Shida in the semi-finals against Japan that set the tone for an upset win for India, something they had done earlier in the group stage against China. They had also played a pivotal role in helping India win their first Badminton Asia Mixed team bronze in 2023 as they defeated 2022 French Open Super 750 champions Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan of Malaysia in the group stage and also won the deciding rubber against Hong Kong in the quarterfinals.

"We are happy that Tanisha-Ashwini qualified for Paris Olympics. Although youngsters Treesa-Gayatri missed the Olympic berth, the way they put everything aside and fought in Singapore to defeat two world top-10 pairs shows their tenacity and ability to match the best in the world when they are at their best. We are sure that they will also bring more laurels for the country soon," said Sanjay Mishra, General Secretary, the Badminton Association of India.

Both the players are just 21 years old there is no doubt that they will be shouldering the responsibility of leading the charge of Indian women's doubles in the foreseeable future.