HUGE! Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand, the only Indians for All England Championships semis

Birmingham, Mar 18: Star Indian pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand continued their dream run as they came up with yet another outstanding performance to make it to their second successive semifinals at the All England Championships in Birmingham on Friday.

 

The World No. 17 pair, the only Indians in the fray, claimed a 21-14, 18-21, 21-12 win over the newly-formed Chinese pair of Li Wen Mei and Liu Xuan Xuan in a 64-minute quarter-final contest.

 

Treesa and Gayatri, who looked solid in their defence and relentless in attack throughout the match, had reached the semi-finals in the last edition as well when they were given a last-minute spot in the main draw.

 

 

But this time they entered the draw with a fair amount of experience, having claimed the Commonwealth Games bronze last year and notching up wins over higher-ranked pairs such as world No. 7 Tan Pearly and Thinnah Muralitharan at the Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championship in February.

 

The Indian duo had shocked seventh seeded Thais Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Ravindra Prajongjai and former world No. 1 pair from Japan Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota in the previous rounds.

 

In the quarterfinals, Gayatri, 20, and Treesa, 19, were up against Li, who has been World No 9 in the past, and Liu, a former World No 16.