Macau Open: Treesa-Gayatri enter semifinals, Srikanth loses

Macau, Sep 27 (PTI) India’s Kidambi Srikanth was ousted in men’s singles but the women’s pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand progressed to the semifinals of the Macau Open Super 300 badminton tournament here on Friday.

Returning from an injury sustained in May, sixth seed Srikanth, a 2021 world championships silver medallist, struggled to find his rhythm against Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Long Angus, losing 16-21 12-21 in just 31 minutes to bow out of the tournament.

Treesa and Gayatri, seeded third, emerged as the lone Indians in the fray after they outwitted Chinese Taipei’s sixth seed Hsu Yin-Hui and Lon Jhih Yun 21-12 21-17 in the women’s doubles quarterfinals.

In the semifinals, the world number 23 Indians will face another Chinese Taipei pair Hsieh Pei Shan and Hung En-Tzu, seeded eighth.

This is the second semifinal for the Indian pair following the last four finish at Singapore Open Super 750 in May-June.

Treesa and Gayatri came into the match with a lot of confidence, having beaten the Chinese Taipei pair at German Open in July this year.

The Indians lagged behind briefly at the start but soon managed to establish a 8-4 lead and entered the interval with a 11-7 cushion.

Treesa and Gayatri kept extending the gap after resumption to pocket the opening game.

The second game was a tight affair as the two pairs fought hard, moving neck and neck for most part before Treesa and Gayatri jumped to 18-14 and shut the door on their opponents.

Srikanth, however, could not produce his best against Ka Long, who was always a step ahead of the Indian.

The Hong Kong shuttler was up 5-0 in a jiffy in the opening game but Srikanth did well to claw back at 10-10. The Indian kept pace with his opponent till 15-15 before Ka Long broke off by winning six of the next seven points.

After the change of sides, Ka Long looked more dominant as he opened up a 5-0 lead again and then kept moving ahead to comfortably close out the match.