Sindhu stars in Smashers’ victory
Each time PV Sindhu won a point against Tai Tzu Ying, the Nehru Indoor Stadium erupted in joy. You could imagine what would have been the scene like when Sindhu fended off a brave fight from the current world number one from Taiwan to put her team, Chennai Smashers, back on level terms against Ahmedabad Smash Masters in the Premier Badminton League season three on Saturday.
By : migrator
Update: 2018-01-06 19:09 GMT
Chennai
Later, PV Sindhu, partnering Sumeeth Reddy, won the mixed doubles tie to complete a 2-1 win for Chennai. Earlier, the home team got off to a bad start as it lost the opening tie of the evening when the doubles pair of Chris Adcock and Lee Yang lost to K Nandagopal and Lee Chun in straight games, 15-13, 15-12.
Sindhu won the epic contest 15-11, 10-15, 15-12 much to the delight of the jam-packed arena that went berserk by chanting her name to a chorus of loud cheers and applause.
Tzu-Ying’s game was marked by deceptive drops interspersed with clever smashes that often caught Sindhu off-guard. Sindhu had her own brand of riposte to counter that as she relied on fierce cross-court smashes and sometimes even pulled off the down the line variant of smash with aplomb. With two exponents who stick to contrasting styles, the Chennai crowd had its fill.
Tzu-Ying rebounded after dropping the opening game to win the second by a five-point margin.
The tide turned in Sindhu’s favour in the deciding game as she staved off a major threat to prevail 15-12.
Later, the Smashers received a big jolt as it lost its men’s singles trump card match when Brice Leverdez went down fighting to Sourabh Verma 12-15, 15-14, 15-12. Leverdez wasted four match points to undo all the hard work done by Sindhu.
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