BWF World Championships: Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand through to the second round

The Indian duo are having a great season, having won their maiden women’s doubles title at the Odhisa Open, advanced to the semifinals at the All England Championships and won the Bronze medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

The Malaysian pairing of Low Yeen Yuan and Valeree Siow lost 11-21, 13-21 to Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly after just 31 minutes of play and failed to offer much trouble to their Indian opponent.

Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly will lock horns with Thinaah Muralitharan and Pearly Tan of Malaysia in a second-round clash on August 24.

Saina Nehwal through to the second round

World No. 33 Saina Nehwal began her BWF World Championships campaign with a 21-19, 21-9 victory over Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong on August 23.

The 32-year-old Haryana native dominated her Malaysian opponent throughout the two games with her quick movement and sharp returns to secure her victory after 38 minutes of play.

Saina Nehwal’s husband, coach and former Commonwealth Games champion, Parupalli Kashyap, provided her with support from the sidelines as she cruised to the victory.

Former World No. 1 Saina Nehwal is the only Indian woman left in the women’s singles draw after Malavika Bansod was knocked out of the competition in the opening round.

Saina Nehwal was supposed to face Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the second round, but the sixth seed had to withdraw from the tournament. 

She has received a bye to the third round and will lock horns with the winner of the clash between Yvonne Li of Germany and No. 12th-seeded Thai Busanan Ongbamrungphan.

In the men’s doubles, Krishna Prasad Garaga and Panjala VVG lost 14-21, 18-21 to the French pairing of Fabien Delrue and William Villager.