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India's Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand advanced to the women's doubles pre-quarterfinals at the Kumamoto Masters Japan 2026 after defeating higher-ranked Japanese pair Hinata Suzuki and Nao Yamakita in straight games on Tuesday, according to Olympics.com.
The world No. 20 Indian duo registered a 21-17, 21-14 victory over their 13th-ranked opponents in 42 minutes in the opening round of the BWF Super 500 tournament at the Kumamoto Prefectural Gymnasium. This was the first meeting between the two pairs. Suzuki and Yamakita, who won the Canada Open earlier this year, had finished runners-up at the Denmark Open Super 750 last month. Treesa and Gayatri, meanwhile, were returning to action after their opening-round exit at the French Open last month. The Indian pair initially trailed 4-8 in the opening game but turned the contest around by winning seven consecutive points to take an 11-8 lead at the interval. Although the Japanese pair fought back to reduce the deficit to 13-12, the Indians regained control and secured the game 21-17. The second game was more one-sided, with Treesa and Gayatri maintaining their dominance to register a 21-14 victory and seal their place in the next round.The Indian duo will next face third seeds and world No. 5 Japanese pair Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi in the round of 16. The two pairs have won one match each in their previous two meetings. Treesa and Gayatri won their most recent encounter 21-16, 21-12 in the round of 16 at the BWF World Championships in New Delhi earlier this year, Olympics.com reported. In men's doubles, India's Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun also progressed to the pre-quarterfinals after their third-seeded opponents, Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, retired hurt during their opening-round match. The world No. 29 Indian pair were leading the fourth-ranked Malaysian duo 11-6 when the match ended prematurely. Hariharan and Arjun will face the winners of the first-round encounter between Japan's Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi and Hong Kong China's qualifiers Hung Kuei Chun-Lui Chun Wai in the pre-quarterfinals. Earlier, Dhruv Kapila and Radhika Sharma bowed out of the mixed doubles qualifiers after losing 21-16, 21-15 to the United States' Chen Zhi Yi and Francesca Corbett. India's Lakshya Sen will begin his campaign on Wednesday. Meanwhile, men's doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, along with women's singles player Malvika Bansod, withdrew from the tournament after initially being listed to compete (ANI)
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