All England Open Badminton Championships 2023: Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly pair seal semifinal spot

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Birmingham, March 17: Indian women's doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand continued their winning run in Birmingham as the duo reached the semifinals of All England Open Badminton Championships 2023.

The world No. 17 pair of Jolly and Gopichand defeated Chinese pair of Li Wenmei and Liu Xuanxuan in the quarterfinal match on court 2 at the Utilita Arena, Birmingham on Friday (March 17).

In a last eight match that lasted for an hour and four minutes, the Indian pair, who won the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2022, beat Wenmei and Xuancuan by a scoreline of 21-14, 18-21, 21-12.

"Treesa and Gayatri are brilliant and have been playing every game with maturity. The amount of composure they show, even in the most crunch situations, is applaudable," said Sanjay Mishra, General Secretary of Badminton Association of India.

"This is their second consecutive semi-final at All England and I hope they continue their impressive run and win the prestigious title."

Treesa and Gayatri, who had upset two experienced pairs to reach the quarters, once again began with an aggressive approach and opened a 6-2 lead before their Chinese opponents found their rhythm. But that hardly deterred the Indians, who controlled the game brilliantly to draw first blood.

It looked like they could run away with the match after opening a 10-6 lead but Chinese won five straight points to go into the break with an one point advantage before forcing a decider with a late flourish.

But instead of getting overwhelmed the young Indians looked more determined in the decider with Treesa raining smashes and Gayatri dominating the net to race to 8-1 lead. They then kept their nerves to wrap up the match without any hiccups.

The Indian pair, who had also reached the last 4 in All England Open 2022, will next face South Korean duo Baek Ha-na & Lee So-hee on Saturday (March 18).

The rising pair, are in fact the only Indian shuttlers to keep the country's challenge alive in Birmingham after the likes of PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy and the top doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty all bowed out early.

Earlier, the pair had scripted a stunning win over former world No. 1 Japanese pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota by a scoreline of 21- 14, 24-22 in a pulsating second round contest that lasted for 50 minutes.

The world No. 17 Indian duo of Treesa and Gayathri had also ousted their nemesis seventh-seeded Thai pair of Rawinda Prajongjai and Jongkolphan Kititharakul in the opening round match that ended with a score of 21-18, 21-14.