India’s Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand settled for a historic bronze medal in women’s doubles at the BWF World Championships. The duo lost to China’s top-seeded world No. 1 pair Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning in the semi-finals at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Saturday. The unseeded Indian duo were the only medal winners for the host nation at these championships. They lost 21-18, 13-21, 8-21 in a match that went for about 71 minutes. The result ended their fairytale run but secured India’s first women’s doubles medal at the World Championships since Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa’s bronze in 2011.

Treesa and Gayatri started strongly in the match. They took an early lead and competed well against the defending champions. After trailing at the interval, they fought back to level at 12-12 and later at 18-18 before sealing the opening game 21-18 with three straight points. The crowd erupted as the Indians briefly looked capable of an upset.

The second game remained competitive until 12-12. Liu and Tan then shifted gears, playing with greater patience and keeping the shuttle flatter. Unforced errors crept into the Indian game as the Chinese pair took off points to win 21-13 and level the match.

In the decider, the top seeds dominated completely. Treesa and Gayatri could not regain their earlier aggression or break the Chinese momentum. Liu and Tan controlled the rallies and closed out the game 21-8. It was a disappointing loss as the silver was lost but these two won the bronze and had a great campaign. 

‘It has been amazing’: Treesa and Gayatri look back on memorable campaign

Speaking after the match, the Indians unseeded doubles pair reflected on their campaign and also about the loss. While speaking on the emotional high of the previous day’s quarter-final and how tough it was to come back, they said, “Yesterday was a pretty intense match, so mentally it was pretty tough because there’s a lot going on. But today when we were on court, I think we were fresh. especially in the first set. Sometimes mentally you can get a little tired.”

It was a stunning campaign for the doubles side who made it to the semi-finals. Looking back at the entire campaign, they were satisfied and said that they will take away a lot from this tournament. They also said that this is just a start and they have a long journey ahead. They ended by saying that they will celebrate the campaign with a lunch or dinner.

“If you see the whole week, it has been amazing. We made so many upsets and it has been such a great week for us. So many great matches we played and so much to take away from this tournament. Obviously, being part of that club makes me so happy. There is still a long journey ahead in the future. I feel this is just a start. We just need to take this as a positive and in a confident way. First of all, I would like to thank the team behind us. We will take them for some lunch or dinner or something and celebrate.”

The pair had already guaranteed a bronze medal by beating fourth seeds Jia Yifan and Zhang Shuxian 16-21, 21-15, 21-13 in the quarter-finals. Liu and Tan advanced to the final, while Treesa and Gayatri’s bronze ensured India continued its streak of winning at least one medal at every World Championships since 2011.