Macau Open 2024: Indian Challenge Ends After Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand Lose Women’s Doubles Semi-Final

Indian challenge at the Macau Open 2024 ended on Saturday (September 28) after the women's doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost the semi-final match in three games at the Macao East Asian Games Dome in Macau, China.

The third-seeded Indian duo Treesa-Gayatri went down 17-21, 21-16, 10-21 to eighth seeded Chinese Taipei duo Hsieh Pei-shan and Hung En-tzu in the last four match that lasted for an hour on court 1.

The Indian pair fought back from a game down to force the decider, but looked to listless in an almost lop-sided third game to bow out of the BWF Super 300 tournament in which they were the last-standing Indians.

This marked the Indian pair's second defeat in the semi-final round on the BWF World Tour this year, having earlier lost in the last four clash in the Singapore Open 2024 in June.

Earlier on Friday (September 27), the world number 23 ranked duo of Gopichand and Jolly, secured a win over sixth-seeded Chinese Taipei duo of Hsu Yin-Hui and Lin Jhih Yun in 39 minutes by 21-12, 21-17 in two straight games.

The Indian pair made a slow start as they trailed 1-3, but by the middle of the first game, they were leading by 11-7. From that point on, they did not look back and won the first game comfortably.

In the second game, Gayatri and Treesa were fighting well, but still trailing by 9-11 at the halfway mark. However, after the Indian pair levelled the scores 14-14, they never missed a point and won the game and match easily.

While Treesa-Gayatri reached the semi-final, singles star Kidambi Srikanth, who returned to action after an injury lay-off, crashed out in the quarterfinals of the Macau Open, losing to Hong Kong's Angus Ng Ka Long 21-16, 21-12.

The World number 38 Indian, also a World Championships silver medalist, struggled in the first game as Angus led by 1-6. However, Kidambi fought back to make it 15-15, but losing four successive points pushed him on the back foot once again and he never recovered from it.

It was Kidambi's fifth loss to Angus in nine matches. They had earlier met in the Malaysia Open this year in which Angus secured a win in two straight matches.

Kidambi, the former world number one, made it to the semis of the Swiss Open this year in March but has failed to make it beyond the pre-quarterfinals on nine occasions this year.