The Indian women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand stunned world number two Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee of South Korea to enter the quarterfinals at the Singapore Open on Thursday.
The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist duo of Treesa and Gayatri kept the Indian flag flying by eliminating Baek and Lee 21-9 14-21 21-15 in a one-hour battle.
This was the world number 30 Indian duo’s maiden win from three meetings against the world number two Korean pair.
The Baek-Lee duo was error prone as Treesa and Gayatri held a commanding 18-9 lead before taking the opening game without much fuss.
But the Indians allowed the South Koreans to bounce back, committing unforced errors in the second game as the match went to the deciding third game.
The rival pairs exchanged some powerful smashes and were locked 8-all before the Indian duo took a slender two-point lead at the final mid-game break.
They continued to play with aggression and reeled off six points in succession to make it 16-9 and seal a memorable win.
In the men’s singles, world No. 10 HS Prannoy, seeded eighth, lost to Kenta Nishimoto, ranked 11th in the world, of Japan 13-21, 21-14, 15-21 in a 45-minute match.