Pune: Saina Nehwal's brilliant form continued at the Indian Badminton League as she registered her fourth win to help Hyderabad Hotshots beat Mumbai Masters by 3-2 at Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex at Balewadi, Pune on Thursday. With their third win, Hyderabad Hotshots is now leading the points table with 15 points.
Mumbai Masters drew the first blood as world number one Lee Chong Wei won his men’s singles match. Howver Saina helped Hyderabad Hotshots make a great comeback with her smashing win and later the duo of V. Shem Goh and W. L. Khim won their men’s doubles match to give their team a lead over Mumbai. And with Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk winning his match, it was nail in the coffin for Mumbai.
Mumbai, however, registered a thrilling win in the opening match when two-time Olympic silver medallist Lee managed to escape a scare off Ajay Jayaram and clinched the match 21-19, 11-21, 11-5 win in 47 minutes.
After registering the stunning win, Lee said, “Initially the wind was very high and I decided to start slow. It took me some time to adjust but the warm up gave good result. I am happy with the win. We are one up already.”
With 0-1 down after the first men’s singles match, a lot was expected from the Saina Nehwal who was playing the second match of the first tie of the day. She lived up to her reputation and overpowered P.C.Thulasi by 21-7 , 21-10 in just 28 minutes.
After this brilliant equalizer, Nehwal said, “It feels so good to win all the matches I have played so far. I came here for the World Championship last time and got the same support from Pune. I am glad to once again make my fans in Pune happy.”
Hyderabad got their most reliable doubles out in Goh and Khim, who contested against the pair of B. S. Reddy and Manu Attri. They didn’t have an ideal start as they received a beating of 11-21 in the first game but they held their nerves really well to claim the next two games by 11-21, 21-16, 11-9 which gave Hotshots the lead that they were looking for to dominate.
Mumbai was seeking to bounce back into the contest and with the German Marc Zweibler, it was looking possible. But in the nerve-wracking match, he was being knocked over by his Thai opponent, Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk who ousted him by 21-19, 17-21, 11-6 and gave Hyderabad Hotshots an invincible lead and also sealed the third victory for his team.
Mumbai did manage to get the consolation win as their mixed doubles pair in Vladimir Ivanov and Sikki Reddy registered a win in the hard contest by 21-18, 21-19 against the Tarun Kona and Padyna Gadre of Hotshots.