BWF Championships 2026: Treesa-Gayatri in semifinals, assured of medal

When in doubt, attack. Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand stuck to the mantra regardless of the scoreline and reaped the rewards, assuring themselves of a maiden medal at the badminton World championships here on Friday.

Their 16-21, 21-15, 21-13 victory against the Chinese World No. 4 Jia Yifan & Zhang Shuxian in the quarterfinals at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium came in 70 minutes. It was their third big scalp in as many matches after ousting the World No. 17 and World No. 7 pairs earlier.

In the process, the unseeded, unfancied duo also became the first Indian women’s pair to do make it to the Worlds semifinals since Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa’s historic bronze in 2011. In fact that medal started India’s streak of winning at least one medal in every edition since then.

It would also be the only medal for India this time after two-time bronze medallists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost to the World No. 3 Chinese pair of Wei Keng Liang and Chang Wang 21-18, 21-9 in just 35 minutes.

Ranked 39th, Treesa and Gayatri trailed 6-0 in the opening game before fighting back to close the gap to 9-8. They eventually lost 21-16 but at no point did it look like they were ready to give up.

Gayatri being quick and busy on the net, smashed cross-court winners and constantly set Treesa up for the winners.

The two went from 7-10 to 13-10 in the second game and, with nothing to lose, pushed hard. They cut down the unforced errors and kept it tight, forcing Yifan, a four time World champion and the reigning Olympic champion, to conceding points and took the match into the decider.

Thereafter it was India all the way. Treesa and Gayatri raced to an 11-5 lead before change of ends and closed out the tie 21-13.

Satwik and Chirag, meanwhile, had their chances in the opening game and even led 18-16 before the opponents reeled off five points to win 21-18. The flat drives targeting the Indians’ bodies meant Satwik and Chirag were always cramped for space.

Wei and Chang’s lightening quick returns, coupled with retrievals from all over the court made it impossible for Satwik and Chiraj to either lift or fall back on their trademark smashes to get points as the Chinese wrapped up the match in quick time.

The results (quarterfinals): Men: Victor Lai (Can) bt Rasmus Gemke (Den) 21-19, 21-18; Alex Lanier (Fra) bt Kunlavut Vitidsarn (Tha) 19-21, 21-16, 21-16; Kodai Naraoka (Jpn) bt Anders Antonsen (Den) 21-19, 21-15.

Doubles: Wei Keng Liang & Chang Wang (Chn) bt Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty 21-18, 21-9; Kim Won Ho & Seo Seung Jae (Kor) bt Sze Fei Goh & Nur Izzuddin (Mas) 21-16, 21-16; Aaron Chia & Wooi Yik Soh (Mas) bt Ke Yuan Hu & Xiang Yi Lin (Chn) 21-11, 21-17; Jhe-Huei Lee & Po-Hsuan Yang (Tpe) bt Fajar Alfian & Muhammad Shohibul Fikri (Ina) 21-19, 21-16.

Women: An Se Young (Kor) bt Yue Han (Chn) 21-19, 21-12; Pornpawee Chochuwong (Tha) w/o Nozomi Okuhara (Jpn); Akane Yamaguchi (Jpn) bt Michelle Li (Can) 21-17, 21-10; Wang Zhi Yi (Chn) bt Line Christophersen (Den) 21-10, 21-7.

Doubles: Treesa Jolly & Gayatri Gopichand bt Yi Fan Jia & Shu Xian Zhang (Chn) 16-21, 21-15, 21-13; Baek Ha Na & Lee So Hee (Kor) bt Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma & Meilysa Trias Puspitasari (Mas) 21-11, 21-11; Sheng Shu Liu & Ning Tan (Chn) bt Nga Ting Yeung & Pui Lam Yeung (Tpe) 21-14, 21-17; Yi Jing Li & Xu Min Luo (Chn) bt Rachel Rose & Febi Setianingrum (Ina) 21-13, 21-14.

Mixed doubles: Zhen Bang Jiang & Ya Xin Wei (Chn) bt Xin Wa Guo & Fang Hui Chen (Chn) 21-13, 21-17; Thom Gicquel & w/o Dechapol Puavaranukroh & Supissara Paewsampran (Tha); Yan Zhe Feng & Chi Zhang (Chn) & Dong Ping Huang bt Xing Cheng & Chi Zhang (Chn) 18-21, 21-10, 21-15; Amri Syahnawi & Nita Marwah (Ina) bt Po-Hsuan Yang & Ling Fang Hu (Tpe) 21-18, 21-9.