India’s sole representative Gayatri Gopichand Pullela and Treesa Jolly shines at ongoing HSBC BWF WORLD TOUR FINALS 2024 in Hangzhou,
China .
World rank 13 pair Jolly/Pullela are placed in group-A along with Olympics champions 🇨🇳 Liu sheng shu/Tan Ning ,Paris bronze medalist 🇯🇵 Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida and Paris 4th finishers Malaysian 🇲🇾 pair Tan Pearly/Thinaah Muralitharan.
It was expected to be an easy elimination of Indians as they were the last entry among the best8 in finals
Winning their 1st S300 title at Syed Modi International, Lucknow ten days ago Jolly/Pullela came into the tournament with red hot form and high confidence.
Treesa/Gayatri faced world rank 1 pair Liu/Tan on the opening day where they stretched the Chinese all way in home for 1hour and 22 minutes before going down 22-20 20-22 14-21 making it one of the longest match the Chinese have played the whole year, hence disproved all assumption .
As outcome Indians found themselves in last spot of the group.
Next match was a elimination match against WR6 Tan/Thinaah whom they triumphed only once in six meetings. A fast paced match saw Jolly/ Pullela emerged victorious in two identical close games 21-19 21-19 .
This also means the last four hope is still alive for India.
ROAD TO SEMI FINALS:
Jolly/Pullela will face Paris Olympics bronze medalist Matsuyama/Shida in next match . Both pairs are standing same with one win and one loss , this makes the upcoming match a virtual Quarter final ,where the winner enters Semis and the defeated opponent will be eliminated from the tournament.
The chances of Indian pair are decent, however the Japanese have an upper hand in quality and head to head record i.e. 2-1 in their favour.
Interestingly last meeting saw Jolly/Pullela edge past Japanese and all the previous have been close encounters.
TAKEAWAYS AND EFFECTS :
As per live rankings Treesa/Gayatri will be WR11 (their new career high) despite winning or loosing. They also stand a chance to equalise the record of senior Ashwini/Jwala by being WR10 the highest rank achieved by any Indian women doubles pair , only if they reach finals in Hangzhou.
Gayatri Gopichand Pullela has been targeted by criticizers for being a weak link . But she stepped up in both the matches played in WTFs so far, with a strong back court support of Treesa Jolly the pair is now looking stronger than ever .
Fans says this pair will make wonders after polishing by new doubles coach Tan Kim Her .
