Badminton

The action in the match was pulsating, evoking gasps of excitement from an audience clearly in awe of both the pairs toiling to book a place in the final.

The Asian Games gold medallists will face either eighth seeds Japanese Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi or Korea’s Jin Yong and Seo Seung Jae in the last four clash.

Despite their sojourn in the China Masters cut short after a second-round exit, Treesa and Gayatri’s performance was enough to enter the top eight in the rankings for the finals.

It was curtains for other two surviving Indian women’s singles players as well with both Anupama Upadhyaya and Malvika Bansod crashing out in the second round.

The Uttarakhand shuttler suffered a tough blow in August when he lost the bronze-medal playoff at the Paris Olympics, squandering an advantageous position to Malaysia’s world No. 7, Lee Zii Jia.

Later in the day, Lakshya Sen, men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, and women’s doubles duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will be in action.

Anupama, who had won titles in Kazakhstan International challenge and Polish Open early in the year, will face Japan’s Natsuki Nidaira in the next round.

India’s premier men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will make a highly-anticipated return to action at the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament.

Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu lost to Canada’s Michelle Li in the second round of the Kumamoto Masters Japan Super 500 tournament on Thursday.