Delhi Acers smash Chennai

New Delhi, January 8 

Defending champions Delhi Acers registered their first win in the Badminton Premier League with a 5-2 verdict over Chennai Smashers here today. Delhi, who won three matches on the trot to go 3-0 up in the tie, needed their men's doubles pair of Ivan Sozonov and Vladimir Ivanov to beat the pair of Chris Adcock and Mads Pieler Kolding to put the tie out of Chennai's reach.

Coming in with huge expectations, the Delhi pair did not disappoint and displayed a dominant performance to win the trump match 11-6 11-6.

In the last match of the tie, Rio Olympics silver-medallist PV Sindhu, playing in the trump match for Smashers, was up against Tanvi Lad of Acers. With the tie already sealed in favour of Acers, it was down to Sindhu to salvage two crucial points and maintain Chennai's top position on the points table. As expected, Sindhu prevailed 11-6, 11-7.

Earlier, the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Vladimir Ivanov beat Chris Adcock and Sindhu of Chennai Smashers to hand defending champions Delhi Acers an early 2-0 lead in the tie. — IANS