Teen shuttlers Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly and 20-year-old Lakshya Sen sailed into the semifinals of the prestigious All England Badminton Championships in Birmingham on Friday.
While 19-year-old Gayatri and 18-year-old Treesa fought back after losing the first set and saved two match points before beating second seeds Lee Sohee and Shin Seungchan of Korea 14-21, 22-20, 21-15, Lakshya Sen got a walkover as his quarterfinal opponent Lu Guang Zu pulled out due to a back injury.
Gayatri's decision to give up singles for the sake of doubles, despite opposition from all quarters, has now paid off as she reached the semifinals of the All England in her first attempt. The inexperienced girls, kept their nerve at crucial moments of the second and the third games to prevail over the silver medallists at the World Championships.
Trailing 15-18 in the second game, the Gayatri-Treesa duo was staring down the barrel. But a second wind helped them close the gap and force the decider. Excited with the victory, Treesa said, “We didn’t feel any pressure, maybe that's the main thing that helped us.”
Gayatri said they were determined to give their best. “We wanted to give it our best. When we were down 18-20 in the second set, we just wanted to fight, take it one point at a time,” said Pullela Gopichand’s daughter.
In the semifinals, Gayatri-Treesa will play Zhen Yu and Zhang Shu Xian of China. Though the Chinese are ranked No. 276 in the world, they have defeated top pairs on their way to semifinals.
Meanwhile, Lakshya, who won the bronze at the World Championships last year and clinched the India Open title earlier this year, had it easy and will play the winner of the match between second seed Kento Momota of Japan and sixth seed Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia, in the semis.
The men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty squandered a huge advantage to lose to top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia 22-24, 17-21.
The Indians were up 20-15 in the first game before the Indonesians fought back gallantly. The top seeds produced six consecutive points to make it 21-20 before Satwik-Chirag scored a point to make it 21-21. But in the end the Indonesians won two big points to take the first set, much to the disappointment of the Indians.
In the second game, it was a see-saw battle till the 15th point before the Indonesians raced ahead to win the match.
