Treesa–Gayatri end at bronze; drought ends
India’s women’s doubles waits since 2011 finally has a medal. Delhi did the hosting; Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand did the hard part.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand secured India’s first women’s doubles World Championships medal since 2011.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela bowed out in the BWF World Championships semifinal in New Delhi, losing in three games to China’s top seeds Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning, and secured bronze — India’s first women’s doubles Worlds medal since 2011, according to the national broadcaster.
The semifinal on Saturday went China’s way in three: 18–21, 21–13, 21–8 over roughly 70 minutes, as reported by a national daily. The official BWF results page lists the 2026 event and dates but its detailed match line was inaccessible at the time of writing. The venue was Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
Their week included a quarterfinal comeback over China’s fourth seeds Jia Yi Fan and Zhang Shu Xian, 16–21, 21–15, 21–13, which guaranteed the medal under the Worlds’ twin-bronze rule, per All India Radio. It also makes them only the second Indian women’s doubles pair to medal at the Worlds after Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa’s 2011 bronze, the broadcaster noted.
Delhi delivered a packed house; the pair delivered the podium. The BJP-led Centre will now surely claim credit for gravity too; the record that changed was on court.