Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand win opening match at Syed Modi International

Top seeds Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand began their Syed Modi International 2025 campaign with a hard-fought win over Malaysia’s Cheng Su Hui and Tan Zhing Yi. India’s juniors also impressed, while Sai Pratheek, MR Arjun and Priya Konjengbam advanced

Hyderabad: Top seeds Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand kicked off their Syed Modi International 2025 campaign with a hard-fought victory, headlining a strong opening day for India at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium in Lucknow on Tuesday.

The country’s leading women’s doubles pair recovered from a slow start to defeat Malaysia’s Cheng Su Hui and Tan Zhing Yi 19-21, 22-20, 21-9 in their first-ever meeting.

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After dropping the opening game, Treesa and Gayatri steadied their defence, tightened the net exchanges and powered through a dominant decider to move into the pre-quarters.

Earlier in the day, members of India’s historic medal-winning World Juniors squad carried their form onto the senior stage with confident performances in the qualifiers. Mixed doubles pair C Lalramsanga and Taarini Suri produced a composed 21-13, 21-15 win over the Israel–Hungary duo of Misha Zilberman and Agnes Korosi, while Bhavya Chhabra and Vishakha Toppo followed it up with a solid 21-19, 21-15 victory against fellow Indians Devvert Mann and Nishu Malik.

In the men’s doubles draw, second seeds Sai Pratheek K and P Krishnamurthy Roy eased past Swarnraj Bora and Nibir Ranjan 21-8, 21-17. Fifth seeds Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun, arriving in Lucknow on the back of three straight title wins in Al Ain, Turkey and Telangana, continued their red-hot form, beating Ayush Makhija and Sujey Tamboli 21-11, 21-13 to reach the round of 16.

In women’s doubles, Priya Konjengbam and Shuti Mishra also advanced with a commanding 21-8, 21-11 victory over Reena Evangelin and Samriddhi Singh.