Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly have kept India’s campaign alive at the prestigious All England tournament after the early exits of big names including PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy. Doubles stars Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were also knocked out in the men’s doubles second round on Thursday.
20 year old Gayatri and 19 year old Treesa’s love continues from All England Open. Having reached the semi-finals in their first appearance in the tournament last year, the young Indian pair emulated their feat, giving India hope of an elusive medal. The Indian pair had defeated seventh seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Ravindra Prajongjai of Thailand and former number one pair of Japan Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the previous round.
No Indian has won the All England title since Pullela Gopichand in 2001. Lakshya Sen had reached the final of the men’s singles event last year but lost in the final against Viktor Axelsen.