Hong Kong Open Jolly, Gayatri go down in pre-quarters

Commonwealth Games bronze medal-winning duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand fought hard before going down to Liu Sheng and Tan Ning in the women's doubles pre-quarterfinals of the Hong Kong Open badminton here on Thursday.

Liu and Ning won 21-11, 22-20.

The first game was a one-sided affair as the second-seeded Chinese pair broke away from 3-2 to win it 21-11.

But the unseeded Indian duo returned strongly in the second game where they fought hard and were level till 15 and then 20-all before the Chinese wrapped it up 22-20. The match lasted 41 minutes.

For the Indians, who are ranked 26th in the world, this was their second loss in a row to the Chinese, ranked third in the world, who now lead 2-1 on head-to-head.

Jolly and Gayatri earlier got past Ukraine's Polina Buhrova and Yevheniia Kantemyr 21-14, 21-13 in their opening round clash.

Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy are the only other Indians in fray in the BWF World Tour Super 500 event. They will face eighth-seeded Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie of Malaysia in the mixed doubles pre-quarters later in the day.