World Championships 2026: Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand win women's doubles bronze, India's first medal in the event since 2011
The unseeded Indian pair beat the fourth seeds in the quarter-final on 21 August and lost the semi-final to China's top pair on 22 August in New Delhi.
The medal
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand took the bronze medal in women's doubles at the World Championships in New Delhi after losing the semi-final to China's top-ranked and defending champions Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning on Saturday 22 August 2026, according to Onmanorama, the Free Press Journal and Outlook India. The match lasted 1 hour 11 minutes.
The path
Onmanorama reports that on Friday the unseeded pair beat fourth-seeded Chinese pair Jia Yifan and Zhang Shuxian 16-21, 21-15, 21-13 in 1 hour 9 minutes after losing the first game. In the semi-final, the Free Press Journal and Outlook say the Indians won the first game 21-18 and then lost 13-21 and 8-21. Onmanorama prints the first game as 18-21 for the Indians; we follow the two other texts.
A 15-year wait
All three say it is India's first women's doubles medal at the Worlds since Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa won bronze in 2011. The Free Press Journal says "thirteen years" in its text but "after 15 years" in a related headline; 2011 to 2026 is 15 years. Onmanorama adds that Treesa is the first Malayali woman to win a world medal.
Why it matters
Outlook calls the pair unseeded and says the medal ends a 15-year drought for Indian women's doubles at the Worlds, a sign of how far an unseeded pair can go in a knockout draw.