Treesa-Gayatri enter Japan Masters second round; Hariharan-Arjun also advance

NEW DELHI: Indian pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand got the better of Japan’s Hinata Suzuki and Nao Yamakita to sail into the second round of Japan Masters 2026 at the the Kumamoto Prefectural Gymnasium in Kumamoto on Tuesday.

World Championships bronze medallists Treesa and Gayatri won the round-of-32 contest 21-17, 21-14 against the World No. 15 pair in 42 minutes.

In men’s doubles, Hariharan Amsakarunan and Arjun M.R. advanced after Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, the former world champions, retired during the first game with the score 11-6 in favour of the Indian pair.

Earlier in the day, the mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Radhika Sharma were knocked out in the qualification round, losing 16-15, 15-21 to USA’s Chen Zhi Yi and Francesca Corbett.

In the opener, Dhruv and Radhika trailed Chen and Corbett by just two points at the mid-game interval but after resumption, the Americans kept on building their lead to take the game.

The second game was much tighter with the Indians coming back into the contest at 14-14. But from there, Chen and Francesca pulled away to seal the win. Agencies

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