Singapore Open: Treesa & Gayatri's dream run ends in semifinals

Singapore: Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand's stunning run at the Singapore Open came to an end with a straight game loss to world No 4. pair Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida in the semifinals here on Saturday. With the defeat, India's campaign at the BWF World Tour Super 750 also ended.

Eyeing a hat-trick of wins against top-10 players, the unseeded Indians went down to the Japanese21-23, 11-21 in 47 minutes.

The Japanese thus avenged their semifinal defeat at the hands of Treesa and Gayatri at the Asia Team Championship in February. The now lead 3-1 on head-to-head record against the world No 30 duo.

Treesa and Gayatri, the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, had their moments in the first game when they fought their way back from being 5-10 down to make it 16-16.

Matsuyama and Shida, however, continued to dominate and got the game point at 20-18. But the Indians continued to fight and saved two game points to bring it level.

The Japanese again went ahead but Treesa and Gayatri saved another game point to make it 21-21 before Nami and Chiharu took a 1-0 lead.

The second game was a one-sided affair for the Japanese as they breezed to huge 20-6 lead before allowing the Indians to come back briefly.

But the gap was to huge to bridge and Matsuyama and Shida secured a spot in the final.

The Indians had earlier eliminated world No 2. Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee in the pre-quarterfinals and world No 6. Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Young in the quarterfinals to enter the Super 750 event semifinals for the first time.