Desk: Indian women's badminton doubles pair Trisha Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have ensured at least a bronze medal for India by pulling off a historic upset in the quarter-finals of the BWF World Championship. In a thrilling match played on Friday, the unseeded Indian pair defeated the strong Chinese pair Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Jian 16-21, 21-15, 21-13 in a tough match that lasted 1 hour and 9 minutes.
This victory is very special for Indian badminton, because India has won a medal in the women's doubles category of the World Championship after a long wait of 15 years. Before this, last time in 2011, the pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa had won the bronze medal. Before this quarter-final match, the Indian pair was trailing 0-3 in their head-to-head matches against the Chinese pair. But in this match an amazing game was seen from the Indian pair.
In the first game, the Chinese players took an early lead of 1-6. Then the Indian pair reduced the gap to 8-9 by taking 6 consecutive points, but the Chinese pair created pressure and won the first game 21-16. Then in the second game too, the Chinese pair was ahead by 5-1 and 10-7, but after this, Trisha and Gayatri made a comeback on the basis of aggressive flat exchanges and tight net play, took a lead of 13-10 and leveled the match by winning the game 21-15. In the third game, the Indian pair maintained the lead from the beginning and took a strong lead of 11-5 till the break. Chinese players started making unforced errors in the face of Indian attacks and pressure. The Indian pair scored 9 match points and ultimately won the match 21-13.