Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto shocked two-time world champions Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara 21-19, 13-21, 21-15 in the second round of the Malaysia Open BWF World Super-1000 tournament in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
The men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty joined them in the quarterfinals. The second-seeded Indians made short work of unseeded Lucas Corve and Ronan Labar of France 21-11, 21-18.
Satwik-Chirag play Chinese pair of He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu in the quarterfinals.
However, the Indian challenge in men's singles ended with the second round exit of Kidambi Srikanth, who lost 12-21, 17-21 to Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong.
Ashwini-Tanisha recovered from a mid-match slump to earn crucial ranking points with this victory in the second round of a Super-1000 tournament.
Ever since 20-year-old Tanisha paired up with seasoned Ashwini last year, the team has done well and is giving a stiff competition to the established pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.
Only one of these pairs will likely qualify for Olympics In the last year, Ashwini-Tanisha have won the Abu Dhabi Masters and Guwahati Masters Super-100 tournaments and reached the final of the Syed Modi Super-300.
After losing the second game without a fight, the Indians bounced back in the third.
With Ashwini guiding her junior partner from the back of the court, the Indians matched the Japanese till 9-9. Ashwini surprised her rivals with a sharp crosscourt smash and Tanisha came up with a smash winner to secure a two-point lead for India at the break.
Tanisha’s half-smash made it 12-9 and the Japanese committed two unforced errors.
From 15-13, the Indians scored three points with a smash winner each and Tanisha bagged another point with her retrieving ability to make it 20-15. The Japanese gave up and their next service return crashed into the net. Ashwini-Tanisha will play Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi of Japan in the quarterfinals.
