Ashmita Chaliha reached a new milestone as the Indian shuttler entered her first BWF Super 300 semi-final at the 2024 Thailand Masters on Friday.
The 25-year-old, who beat Indonesia’s Ester Nurumi Tri Wardoyo 21-14, 19-21, 21-13 in just under an hour, is the only Indian left in the tournament.
Earlier in the day, Mithun Manjunath crashed out after a straight-game loss to Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands in men’s singles. Sixth seeds Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand saved two match points, but weren’t able to close out their quarter-final as well, losing 12-21, 21-17, 21-23 to the Indonesian pair of Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Amallia Cahaya Pratiwi.
Wardoyo began the first game in a strong fashion, racing to a 5-1 lead before Chaliha levelled things up at 8-all. With only 17 places separating the two in the rankings, the Indonesian then opened up a gap of four points only for Chaliha to close her down again. Then, trailing 10-14, the Indian went on an incredible 11-point winning streak complete with smashes and clever plays to take the first game in an astonishing manner.
The second game was more cagey as both players became familiar with the other’s style. There was no clear lead established in the opening exchanges and that continued into the mid-game interval break where Wardoyo led 11-9. Chaliha then took control of the game and raced ahead to 19-14, needing only two points to clinch the tie and enter the semi-finals. But the world No 44 had other plans and went on a six-point winning streak to level the match at 1-game all, winning 21-19.
With the match all level on games won, Chaliha looked determined to not repeat the mistakes from the second game. The decider began rather rapidly for the Indian, who opened up a massive eight-point lead at the mid-game break at 11-3. Even as Wardoyo won four consecutive points on two separate occasions, it wasn’t enough to deter Chaliha who seemed to have all the power and control the game fluidly.
The Indian was once again two match points away at 19-9 and allowed Wardoyo to make a comeback by losing her concentration slightly, but ultimately closed out the match.
She will be up against the winner between Supanida Katethong and Chinese Taipei's Wen Chi Hsu in the semi-final on Saturday.
Manjunath, Treesa/Gayatri crash out
It was a defeat that took an hour for the Indian women’s doubles pairing, who had entered the quarter-finals on the back of defeating their compatriots Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto on Thursday.
The fourth seeds showcased their vast experience by completely dominating the opening game with the Indians unable to stop them. The Indonesians went on a massive eight-point winning streak that opened up the game before the mid-game break and Treesa/Gayatri never truly recovered from it later in the game, losing 12-21.
The second game began in a better fashion for the Indian duo who were trailing by one single point at the mid-game break and constantly kept pace with Kusuma and Pratiwi throughout the game. At 14-all, Treesa/Gayatri began to establish firm control over the exchanges and despite the Indonesian duo catching up at 17-18, the Indians managed to level the match at 1-game all.
With every match win crucial to gaining points in the 2024 Paris Olympic qualification race, Treesa/Gayatri will rue the mistakes they made in the deciding game. Although they were trailing for most of the game, the Indian duo did well to recover and reach 19-all. But a couple of crucial errors on their serve saw the match-point opportunity slip from their hand and exit in the quarter-final stage after losing the deciding game 21-23.
Manjunath’s encounter against his Dutch opponent took only 43 minutes, but he too had similar opportunities to get ahead in the first game, that ran quite close between the two shuttlers. At 19-18, the world No 63 had a solid opportunity to take a one-game lead in the match, but struggled to close out the encounter, losing 21-19.
The second game began in a similar fashion with both Caljouw and Manjunath trading the lead, with the Dutch shuttler leading 11-8 at the mid-game break. However, the world No 51 then took firm control and played out the Indian from the game, ultimately sealing a straight-game win.