3 min readMumbaiUpdated: Mar 3, 2026 11:27 PM IST
India’s top mixed doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto-Dhruv Kapila registered India’s first win at the All England Open with a 21-17, 21-19 win over Malaysians Hoo Pang Ron-Cheng Su Yin to progress to the second round at the Utilita Arena on Tuesday.
India’s top pairing having slipped to World No 21, were up against one of the five promising Malaysian pairs who have mushroomed in the wake of the iconic Chen-Toh winning the world title. Hoo-Cheng are World No 23, but considered one of the emerging talented pairs. However Dhruv Kapila, who has been nursing niggles for some time now, burst out of the blocks and used the long flat drives to go on a 6-point rally in the opening set that scripted the tone for the rest of the match.
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Tanisha, at times error prone, however was scythe when she went across at the net, but both Indians moved well to cross the first hurdle at an arena that played slow on the day.
The Indians kept things compact, but allowed errors to creep in as the Malaysians went from 12-20 to 17-20, and the Indians couldn’t finish off the first set. But having finally put it across, the Indians settled into rhythm – making peace with the chaos of their own up-and-down game.
In the second, things remained tight, and a 14-11 lead didn’t amount to much, as the Malaysians caught up, but Dhruv was finding winners down the middle and Tanisha followed with her pecking prods.
The Indians were in danger of being dragged into a decider, at 17-19, after a couple of mis-hits. But the drive game served the Indians well, before Dhruv fanned out to the back and even brought the shuttle back into play with a pirouette and forced a wide error from the Malaysians to get match point. A Tanisha push though sealed it for India.
Earlier, Malvika Bansod lost 21-11, 21-7 to Chen Yufei.
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Treesa-Gayatri exit
In their first round women’s doubles match, Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand frittered a 9-4 lead in the decider, as Japanese Sayak Hirota and Ayako Sakuramoto upped the ante and attacked with ferocity, handing the Indians a 15-21, 21-15, 18-21 loss in Round 1.
Defensive pressure landed by the pair of 30-31 year olds from Japan, got the Indians to clamp up in crunch moments, and a stream of errors after taking the lead dragged the Indians down.
The Japanese played at a scorching pace, and their down attacks elicited weak returns into the net, ending All England rather swiftly for the Indian duo.
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