Tanvi and Treesa-Gayatri fall as India’s challenge ends in quarterfinals in Denmark

Tanvi Sharma and doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand went down as India’s challenge at the Denmark Open 2026 badminton tournament ended in the quarterfinals.

Tanvi Sharma was the last Indian standing but could not get past world No. 1 and top seed An Se-young of the Republic of Korea, losing 21-15, 21-13 in 38 minutes.

Earlier, the women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who won a bronze medal at the BWF World Championships earlier this year, went down 14-21, 21-17, 21-11 to Malaysia’s second seeds Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan.

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand went down 14-21, 21-17, 21-11 to Malaysia’s second seeds Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan. Pics: BAI

World No. 18 Treesa-Gayatri made the brighter start and led 11-7 at the first interval before taking the opening game comfortably. The Malaysians, currently ranked fifth, were also playing catch-up in the early exchanges of the second game.

Treesa-Gayatri held a 14-11 lead before Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan, former Commonwealth Games champions and world championships silver medallists, turned things around to level the match.

The decider belonged to the Malaysians, who denied the Indian badminton players any sniff at a possibility of an upset.

This was Treesa-Gayatri’s eighth loss to Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan in 10 meetings. The Malaysians were also responsible for their ouster from the quarterfinals of the Asian Games 2026 in Japan earlier this month.

World No. 24 Tanvi Sharma, meanwhile, made a promising start to her first-ever clash against reigning world and Olympic champion An Se-young but couldn’t sustain it for too long as the Korean brushed aside the Indian teenager with ease.

Most of India’s heavy-hitters, including PV Sindhu, Unnati Hooda, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty, had bowed out of the BWF Super 750 event from the opening round.

Kidambi Srikanth made it to the second round of men’s singles before losing to reigning world champion Alex Lanier of France.

Indian shuttlers will next be seen in action on the BWF World Tour 2026 in the French Open, which runs from October 20 to 25.