Indian women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand fought hard before going down in straight games to top seeded Chinese duo of Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan in the pre-quarterfinals of the World Championships on Thursday. World number 19 Gayatri and Treesa, who reached the semifinals of the All England Championships in the last two editions, couldn’t sustain the attack against their much-fancied rival and lost 14-21 9-21 in 42 minutes. It was only the second meeting between the two pairs with the Indians having lost to the world number one Chinese at the German Open last year.
Chen and Jia are three-time gold medallist at the World Championships and have won three BWF titles and finished runner-up twice this season. The Commonwealth Games bronze winners, who had received a bye in the first round, had a positive start leading 5-2 with the two managing the length to keep up the attack on the Chinese. Treesa and Gayatri moved well and played some good rallies but their experienced opponents managed to grab four straight points to make it 6-6. Two superb service from Jia left the Indians stranded as the Chinese entered the break with 11-7 lead. Treesa played a fine drop from the back court after resumption but the Chinese remained patient with Jia showing great interception. A precise placement from Treesa took India to 10-14. However, Chen and Jia looked in complete control and reached 17-10 with the former playing a terrific forehand cross court. A long shot from Gayatri handed 8 game points to the Chinese, who squandered two of them before Jia unleashed a smash to seal the issue. In the second game, Chen was called for a service fault but Jia more than made up with her superb flick serves bamboozling the Indians.