India, Aug. 20 -- Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand punched above their weight to beat the higher-ranked Japanese pair of Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi at the 2026 Badminton World Championships Round of 16 clash on Thursday. In a match where the pressure was on the 39th-ranked Indian shuttlers against the seventh-seeded Japanese pair, neither Treesa nor Gayatri made it feel like an upset. The box-office clash had everything - intensity, aggression, comeback and, in the end, a win for India.

The final scoreline read 21-16, 21-12, but there was plenty of drama for it to be labelled a box-office clash. It was important for the Indian pair to hold their nerve, especially when things looked tough, but they channelled their aggression brillia...