There are no incremental improvements when playing World No. 1 Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning for Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.
The Indians had beaten the Chinese the first time they played, winning the decider 21-19 from 18-19 down in 2023. Treesa-Gayatri have since lost six times to the jaunty juggernaut, two women with tremendous power and stamina and sufficient mental strength.
The 15-21, 21-15, 21-12 on Saturday in the semifinals of the Swiss Open means the Indians have now twice gone down 21-14 and 21-12 in the third set to them. So there’s no pattern as such apart from the satisfaction of dragging the top-ranked pair to deciders. But as Genghis Khan said, the beauty of an action lies in its completion.
It is plainly clear that Indian plans work against the top Chinese. It is also evident that Treesa and Gayatri will need the next two notches of fitness, not because their smashes lack the sting in the latter stages but because exhaustion can affect decision-making. It allows the big-hitting Chinese to barge and blast through the endgame, even if the Indians can catch them off guard with their game. It’s how the 26-minute long first set, in a 91-minute match, went.
Unlike Friday, the Basel semis was not about Treesa’s drops, for the Chinese have the front court well protected. However, when sent tracking back and pinned to the baseline, the Indians can incite anarchy that is difficult to decipher.
The first rally of the match — with all players fresh — went to 97 shots. It wasn’t attritional, but it cleaved open the Chinese problem straight away: they simply didn’t know what and where the Indians would play the shuttle, so both Liu and Tan went after the same bird in textbook harakiri.
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The longer a rally went on, and the Indians played them at a leisurely pace before suddenly attacking, the more the Chinese got confused. It needs a good defence, which the Indians are capable of, and endless creativity in mixing the shots — tosses, flats, drops of course, the choosy smash but mostly half smashes with wobble angles.
The points, however, came from the bottom-sliced cross drops that Indians played at an angle to the Chinese racquets. They were like cricket’s cutters — looking like they could be fended off but the angles were wicked and rushing on them, making them impossible to parry off. Most shuttles got smacked wide. The Chinese were boggled, falling back 21-15.
However, Liu-Tan have a higher gear and power that brooks no riposte, which makes them the juggernaut they are. They simply hit through the Indians, at a higher pace and played consistently. From 7-7 to 9-12, the Indians got deflated and never came back. The Indian plan of playing placement badminton hinged on them nailing the line smashes and strokes on the borders, but Treesa struggled on the day with precision.
It would be cruel to judge that either Indian played poorly, quite the contrary. But their excellent plan will only bear fruit if after they get both Chinese rooted in one corner, they don’t smash wide on the other flank.
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Gayatri logged in a few mistakes in the crucial mid-second set phase, but Treesa had a bunch of smashes sprayed long and wide, even as she worried about the Chinese ability to retrieve impossible line strokes and overhit. A punch clear to the back corner was a perfect idea, but the follow-up kill smash sailed wide even when Liu-Tan were out of position. Errors like those cost the Indians the match.
The Indians will need to believe they can win in two sets, and stay sharp after taking the first. Foot off the pedal, and the Chinese don’t need asking twice.
