The Indian pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela fell to Korea’s Baek Na Ha and Lee So Hee at the All England semifinal on Saturday.
The pair were defeated 21-10, 21-10 in straight sets by their Korean counterparts.
On Friday, the World number 17 pair had defeated Li Wen Mei and Liu Xuan Xuan 21-14, 18-21, 21-12 in the quarterfinals. Before that, they had staged an upset, taking down the former world number one pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota 21-14, 24-22 in a second round contest.
In the first round, they had stunned Thailand’s, Jongkolphan Kitiiharakul and Rawinda Prajongai.
It was almost the perfect doubles victory on Friday. Treesa dipping into her sack of delightful tricks from all around the court, and Gayatri matching her with smooth set-ups and kills at the net as Li Wen Mei and Liu Xuan Xuan of China were downed.
“We’re going for the title,” Gayatri had told BWF after their quarters. She added that playing at the All England this year “felt normal” compared to last year when they sneaked into the main draw after being reserves.
“Last time the excitement was so high… We wanted to play the All England at least once. But this time we knew we’d get an entry for this tournament, and we’d prepared well. Last year we just couldn’t sleep as we were so excited. But this time feels normal.”
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