Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand to meet World No.1 Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning in BWF World Championships 2026 semi-final
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will face World No.1 Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning in the women's doubles semi-final at the BWF World Championships 2026 in New Delhi on August 22. The World No.39 Indian pair reached the last four after a quarter-final victory that secured India's first women's doubles medal at the World Championships in 15 years.
Treesa and Gayatri are the first women's doubles combination from India since Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa in 2011 to reach the World Championships semi-finals. Their opponents, Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning, enter the match as top seeds and are ranked World No.1. The article includes a social media post reading: "🔥 SEMI-FINAL SHOWDOWN! 🏸🇮🇳​The Indian duo Treesa Jolly & Gayatri Gopichand Pullela are set to battle China’s Liu Sheng Shu & Tan Ning for a spot in the Women's Doubles final at the BWF World Championships 2026 in New Delhi! pic.twitter.com/CzXvm1ocBJ"
The head-to-head record is noted in the report as 1-6 in favour of the Chinese pair. Treesa and Gayatri's sole listed victory over Liu and Tan took place in the semi-finals of the 2023 Badminton Asia Mixed Team Championships, with the score recorded as 18-21, 21-13, 21-19; that encounter was described as the first-ever meeting between the pairs.
The article also records that Liu and Tan have won every contest between the sides since that 2023 meeting. Their most recent meeting is cited as the semi-final of the 2025 Swiss Open, which one passage describes with a scoreline of 21-15, 15-21, 12-21 in favour of the Chinese pair despite Treesa and Gayatri taking the first game; another passage gives that Swiss Open score as 15-21, 21-15, 21-12.
Elsewhere the piece states "Both pairs have clashed six times on tour previously" and that "The Chinese duo lead the head-to-head record by a massive 6-1 margin." The report also characterises Liu and Tan as "clear favourites" for the semi-final meeting.
If Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand reach the final, the article notes, they would become the first doubles pair from India to confirm a silver medal at the World Championships. The semi-final is scheduled for August 22 (Saturday) with a tentative start time of 2:40 pm IST.
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