Indian women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa on Tuesday notched up a comfortable straight-game victory over Lei Yao and Shinta Mulia Sari of Singapore in their last Group B match but still failed to enter the quarterfinals of the London Olympics.
The Commonwealth Games gold medalists saw off the world number 13 Singapore pair 21-16 21-15 in a 34-minute match at the Wembley Arena here.
However, the Indian pair ended up in the number three position in the group based on the difference between points won and lost in all matches after tying with Chinese Taipei pair of Wen Hsing Cheng and Yu Chin Chien and Japanese combo of Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa here.
The world No 20 Indian combo opened up a 11-5 lead in the first game and extended it to 18-10. The Singapore pair tried to come back and made it 19-14, before Jwala and Ashwini earned the game point.
Yao and Sari saved a couple of game points but the Indian pair didn’t make any more mistakes and pocketed the first game comfortably.
In the second game, the Indian pair surged ahead to a 9-1 lead and although their rivals scripted a fightback, Jwala and Ashwini staved off the challenge to comfortably seal the issue but still failed to enter the knockout stage.
The body langguage of Jwala&Diju while they playis hardly inspiring ,one look at them &you can see their defeatist attitude &lack of confidence staring at you.Very surprising because both are seasoned campaigners,&have represented India in so many competetions.Lots was expected from them but they have failed miserably.
They could have easily qualified for the qf if they were informed about the rules, in case of a
tie. They were 9 - 1 in the second set and ended with 21 - 15. Feel sorry for them. I could not
believe my eyes when they ended up being ruled out due to 1 point.
Ashwini & Jwala - you showed tremedous technique and composure - but you should have
thought of the situation of the tie which was inevitable as the other 2 teams had 2 points
each already.
Good luck for the future, don't loose hope.
Very very sad!! they are such a terrific team and almost unstoppable
now!
This is one of the cruellest way to exit in the competition; very akin to finishing fourth in the finals by a point or 0.1 sec and losing a medal podium opportunity. But that's the way it goes when three or more rivals are so close to each other in their ability in their sports. All one can say is better luck next time.
Tough Luck. They won handsomely but it was not enough. The match was one sided and the pair (Jwala and Ashwini) might now be ruing the fact that if they had not squandered their ominous lead in both the games of the match , they might have just made it.
Still it was a good effort from them in the Olympics and may be in the next Olympics they might be in the reckoning.
They have been knocked out .....they had to win the second set by 21-13
which they unfortunately couldn't
feel sorry for the so called best newspaper of india for being
misinformed
They did not make it to QF !!!..
Lost because of difference of points.
Please re-check.
Don't be in a hurry like times of india !!
In fact the Indian pair failed to qualify to the Q/F because of 1 less
points won by them compared to the Japanese when taking into account all
points won and lost by each team in all their 3 matches.
Sure they have won the match. But they haven't qualify for quarter final
stage. Brush up your Olympic knowledge.
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