Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand Advance To Kumamoto Masters Pre-Quarters

(MENAFN- AsiaNet News)

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Secure Opening Win

The Indian women's double pairing of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand started off their campaign at the Kumamoto Masters Japan 2026 badminton tournament on Tuesday with a win. Treesa and Gayatri reached pre-quarters, beating higher-ranked Japanese pair Hinata Suzuki and Nao Yamakita 21-17, 21-14 in 42 minutes at the Kumamoto Prefectural Gymnasium, as per Olympics. It was their first meeting against the 13th ranked pairing, which won the Canada Open this year and finished runners-up at the Denmark Open Super 750 last month.

Treesa-Gayatri will next face third seeds and world number five Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi of Japan in the round of 16. The two pairs are level 1-1 in their head-to-head record, with Treesa and Gayatri prevailing in their most recent meeting 21-16, 21-12 in the round of 16 at the BWF World Championships in New Delhi earlier this year.

Men's Doubles and Mixed Doubles Updates

In the men's doubles competition, the pairing of Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun also advanced to pre-quarters, after third seeds Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia retired hurt from the match when the Indians were leading 11-6 in the opening game. Earlier, Dhruv Kapila and Radhika Sharma made an exit from the mixed doubles qualifiers after losing 21-16, 21-15 to the USA's Chen Zhi Yi and Francesca Corbett.

Tournament Withdrawals and Player Status

Lakshya Sen will start his campaign on Wednesday. Meanwhile, India's men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and women's singles player Malvika Bansod withdrew from the tournament after initially being listed to compete.

Qualification for BWF World Tour Finals

Lakshya climbed eight places to reach the 10th spot in the race to the finals after securing the Hylo Open title earlier this month. The Commonwealth Games champion will be eyeing getting into the top eight, entering the cut-off zone for the BWF World Tour Finals. The BWF Finals feature the top eight players/pairs across all disciplines and will take place this year from December 9 to 13 in China. Last year at this event, Lakshya made it to the semifinals, losing to home favourite Kenta Nishimoto in three games. He also achieved a runners-up finish in the All England Open this year.

The world number six pairing of Satwik-Chirag will also be leading the men's doubles challenge, having won two BWF Super 750 titles this season, the Singapore Open in May and the China Masters in September. They also finished as runners-up in the Thailand Open. Satwiksairaj and Chirag are at 12th spot in the men's doubles world rankings and a strong finish in Japan could see them climb up and qualify for the BWF World Tour Finals.

Meanwhile, India's two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu has qualified for the season-ending BWF Tour Finals tournament following a string of strong performances in the BWF World Tour circuit. Sindhu reached the world number six in women's singles competition, her highest ranking since December 2022 following her Hylo Open title win, making her eligible for the competition. Sindhu clinched her second title of the season after defeating Denmark's Line Kjaersfeldt 21-12, 21-14 in the women's singles final of the Hylo Open on Sunday. The two-time Olympic medallist wrapped up a dominant campaign in Germany with a straight-games victory, returning to the winner's circle a week after finishing runner-up at the French Open, where she lost to world No. 1 An Se Young. She won the BWF World Tour Finals title back in 2018. Sindhu had earlier won the Japan Open in July, making the Hylo Open her second title on the BWF World Tour this season. She also made it to the final of the French Open and the semifinals of the Malaysia Open and the Australian Open.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianetnews Editorial staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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