Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu showed that she was equally adept at playing the combined events when she won the singles and mixed doubles tie on Saturday to keep alive the hopes of defending champions Chennai Smashers in the Premier Badminton League.
The world No 3 first ended Tai Tzu Ying unbeaten streak in the women’s singles and the teamed up with B Sumeeth Reddy to win the last rubber against Lee Chun Hei Reginald and Kamilla Rytter Juhl to help the Smashers beat Ahmedabad Smash Masters 2-1.
Smashers, however, began with a loss on their debut in Chennai. Chris Adcock and Lee Yang lost the opening men’s doubles match 13-15, 12-15 to Lee Chun Hei Reginald and Kidambi Nandagopal.
With their semi-final hopes flickering dangerously, the Smashers counted on their biggest star to bail them out by defeating the world’s top-ranked player. Tai had beaten Sindhu on all three occasions last year and was unbeaten in the league this season. But buoyed by the Chennai crowd’s ear-splitting cheer, Sindhu took the first game 15-11.
The world No 1, however, bounced back to win the second game 15-10.
In the third game, Sindhu, aided by her opponent’s unforced errors, went into the break 8-6. After the change of ends, Tai tied the score 12-12. Sindhu won the next three points to seal the match.
“It was a great win and I feel I did extremely well to beat Tai Tzu. The crowd was extremely motivating and their support helped me a lot in getting this win,” Sindhu said after the match.
More thrilling was Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk’s triumph over world No 10 HS Prannoy.
Down 0-1 down in the tie after Smashers lost their trump match, the onus was on the Thai shuttler to keep Chennai’s chances alive in the tie.
He overcame a strong challenge from Prannoy to win the match 15-10, 12-15, 15-14. The win also saw Tanongsak end Prannoy’s 10-match unbeaten PBL run.
In the previous match, Sourabh Verma came back from a game down to beat Chennai Smashers’ trump player Brice Leverdez 12-15, 15-14, 15-12.
With the scores tied 1-1 after Tanongsak’s win, Sindhu returned to the court with Sumeeth for the mixed doubles tie. The pair pulled off a scintillating 15-14, 15-13 victory over Masters’ Lee Chun Hei Reginald and Kamilla Rytter Juhl.
The Smashers, who are seventh on the points table with nine points, are still unsure of a semifinal spot as they face Bengaluru Blasters on Monday.
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