-Olympics
Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly advanced to the round of 16 of the Hong Kong Open 2023 women’s doubles event in Kowloon on Tuesday.
Competing on the badminton courts of the Hong Kong Coliseum, Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, 18th in the BWF rankings, got the better of the world No. 32 Dutch duo of Debora Jille and Cheryl Seinen 21-15, 16-21, 21-16 in 54 minutes.
The Indian badminton players were in a spot of bother at the start of the match, trailing 4-7 after initial exchanges. However, Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly pulled things back to level the scores at 8-8. They built a six-point lead at 17-11 and saw off the first game to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
The second game proved to be a neck-and-neck affair but the Indian duo conceded eight of the final 11 points.
Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly mounted a comeback in the third game to lead 11-7 at the break. After the change of ends, the Indians held on to their lead and progressed to the round of 16.
None of the five Indian badminton men’s singles players progressed to the main round of the BWF Super 500 tournament.
World No. 39 Kiran George, who won the Indonesia Masters Super 100 title last week, began his qualifying campaign with a 21-15, 21-17 win over world No. 41 Chi Yu Jen of Chinese Taipei. The 23-year-old Indian shuttler lost the second qualifying match against world No. 42 Leong Jun Hao of Malaysia 22-20, 14-21, 21-14 and could not make it to the main draw.
Mithun Manjunath, a member of India’s Asian Games squad, lost to Jason Gunawan of Hong Kong 20-22, 15-21 in the first round of the qualifiers.
Former junior world No. 1 Sankar Subramanian was beaten by Finland’s Kalle Koljonen 21-19, 13-21, 18-21. Ravi beat Shashwat Dalal 21-15, 21-12 in the first round but lost to Jason Gunawan 15-21, 14-21 to make an exit.
Asian Games-bound Malvika Bansod progressed to the main draw of the women’s singles with a 21-14, 11-10 win over Thailand’s Pitchamon Opatniputh. Malvika Bansod, ranked 47th, won the first game and was leading the world No. 54 Thai shuttler by a point in the second game when the latter pulled out.
Ashwini Ponnappa, meanwhile, made it to the main draw of both events. She teamed up with BS Reddy in the mixed doubles and got the better of Alvin Morada and Alyssa Ysabel Leonardo of the Philippines 21-15, 21-14.
In the women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto defeated compatriots N Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sara Sunil 16-21 14-21 for a ticket to the main draw.
Indian pair Nikki Rapria-Nishu Rapria crashed out after losing to Chinese Taipei’s Hu Ling Fang-Lin Xiao Min 6-21, 1-21.
Results at the Hong Kong Open 2023 will also count towards qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Lakshya Sen, India’s top player at the Hong Kong meet, will begin his campaign on Wednesday
Featured Image: ESPN India