India's big 3: PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, Satwik-Chirag claim gold as shuttlers dish out a sweep
Birmingham, August 8
Superstar PV Sindhu and young sensation Lakshya Sen lived up to the high expectations by grabbing gold as India swept the singles badminton competition at the Commonwealth Games for the first time here today.
Sindhu added a CWG gold to her swelling trophy cabinet with a convincing straight-game win over Canada’s Michelle Li. The world No. 7 outplayed her 13th-ranked opponent 21-15 21-13 in front of full crowd at the National Exhibition Centre arena.
The 30-year-old Li had to produce something special for her first win against Sindhu in eight years but the Indian did not give her a window. Sindhu was clinical in her short game and pounced on the slightest of attacking opportunities.
Superb Sindhu
In the first game, Li was trying to get points by playing close to the net, while Sindhu was the more attacking one.
A smash on Li’s left made it 7-5 before the Canadian came with a drop shot on Sindhu’s right to make it 7-6. Sindhu took three straight points after the interval to stretch her lead to 14-8.
Li did come up with two consecutive backhand winners for 14-17 but Sindhu bagged the first game with a swat shot on the Canadian’s body.
The Indian took a 4-2 lead in the second with a brilliant retrieve off her body and cruised to 11-6 at the interval.
The crowd sensed a comeback from Li, who won the longest rally of the match with a forehand winner. But Sindhu shut the door on her and completed a fine win with a cross-court winner.
Sensational
Later in the day, the 10th-ranked Sen came from behind to end Ng Tze Yong’s giant-killing run in the competition. The 20-year-old beat the world No. 42 from Malaysia 19-21 21-9 21-16. “I had to work really hard,” said Sen.
