The Indian’s women’s doubles badminton duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost in the semi-final of the Singapore Open Super 750 on Saturday to Japan’s Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida.
Treesa and Gayatri reached their first BWF Tour semi-final of the season on the back of upset wins over the second and sixth seeded South Korean pairs, but could not get past the fourth seeds from Japan, losing 21-23, 11-21 in a match that lasted 47 minutes.
The Japanese duo set the tone early in the match, racing to an 8-2 lead. However, the Indians found their rhythm and started to claw their way back into the game, eventually levelling the scores at 16-16.
Matsuyama and Shida then managed to get to 20-18, but the Indians saved both game points, and later saved a third game point to level the scores at 21-21. The Japanese duo however, stayed clutch to pick up the next two points and clinch a tight opening game 23-21.
After the change of ends, it was the Japanese team that got off the blocks quickest and raced to a solid 11-2 lead at the second game interval.
They continued in that same vein of form to reach match points at 20-6.
Treesa and Gayatri however, refused to be beaten, as they played solid shots and stayed consistent while drawing out errors from Matsuyama and Shida. They managed to save five match points, but the late surge came too late.
Eventually, a clever dink at the net from Matsuyama caught the Indians off guard as the shuttle fell to the surface to book the Japanese duo’s spot in the final, where they will take on top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China.
