Treesa-Gayatri defend women’s title, Srikanth suffers heartbreak

Lucknow: The Indian pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand retained the women’s doubles crown but Kidambi Srikanth’s hopes of snapping an eight-year title drought went up in smoke as he suffered a heartbreaking loss in the final of the Syed Modi International Super 300 here Sunday.

Former winner Srikanth, a 2021 world championships silver medallist, went down 16-21 21-8 20-22 to world No. 59 Jason Gunawan of Hong Kong in a 67-minute thriller.

The 32-year-old had last won a title in 2017 at the French Open and had come close earlier this year, finishing runner-up at the Malaysia Masters Super 500. Defending champions Treesa and Gayatri, however, produced an attacking masterclass to rally from a game down and outwit the world No. 35 pair of Japan’s Kaho Osawa and Mai Tanabe 17-21 21-13 21-15 in a pulsating one hour and 16-minute final. They were playing only their second event since Gayatri’s return from a five-month shoulder injury layoff.

Gunawan started strongly to go 4-1 ahead and went into the break with a three-point lead. Errors crept into the Indian’s game soon after as his lifts floated long, helping Gunawan move to 14-10.

Srikanth answered with crisp smashes but Gunawan stayed sharp, surging to 17-11 with a straight down-the-line winner. Srikanth saved three of the seven game points before Gunawan sealed the opener with a powerful smash.

Switching sides brought a renewed Srikanth, who injected pace into his attack and unleashed razor-sharp smashes and brilliant retrieves to race to 6-1. A body smash from Gunawan broke his run, but Srikanth maintained pressure on the backhand side to lead 11-4, and eventually, grabbed 13 game points.