Mumbai: Saina Nehwal registered her third win in the Indian Badminton League as she defeated Juliane Schenk, helping Hyderabad Hotshots beat Pune Pistons by 4-1 here on Monday. With this brilliant win, Hyderabad now leads the table with 11 points whereas Pistons are holding the second place with nine points.
When the two of the top five shuttlers take on each other, it is expected to be a tough contest and the match between Saina and her German opponent Juliane Schenk was no different. They gave a brilliant start for the day with their tussle but ultimately Saina emerged victorious and with that she took her career record against Schenk to 9-4.
Both the shuttlers put up a great fight which enthralled the crowd. The second game especially saw Saina making an impressive comeback. She won the second game which lasted 27 minutesafter losing the first game by 17-21.
As the match went into the deciding set, Saina raced away to take a lead of 4-1, but after series of long rallies she managed to keep up the good work by posing a 7-5 score line. Indian showed some unruffled stuff in the last minutes of the game and got better off Schenk in the 59th minute as she finished off with 11-6.
Meanwhile in the men’s singles match, Ajay Jayram took just 40 minutes to stun world number five Tien Minh Nguyen 21-19 21-8. The Vietnamese looked quite off colour during the contest which gave much of a breathing space to the Indian in this one-sided affair.
Later, the Malaysian world number two duo of V Shem Goh and Wah Lim Khah notched the third victory of the day for Hyderabad Hotshots and also gave their side an invincible lead. They knocked out the Indian pair of Sanave Thomas and Rupesh Kumar by 21-19 and 21-16.
In the second men’s singles match of the day, Pistons started to erode as they lost the fourth match in a row when the Thai S Tanongsak won his game in straight sets for Hyderabad Hotshots. He managed to defeat Saurabh Varma with 21-19 21-18.
The only victory that Pune managed to clinch came from their iconic player Ashwini Ponnappa who paired up with Joaquim Fischer Nielsen in the mixed doubles match against the pair of V Shem Goh and Pradnya Gadre 21-11 21-14.