Sindhu crushes Malvika for title
Lucknow, Jan. 23: Twotime Olympic medallist P.V. Sindhu eased past young compatriot Malvika Bansod in straight games to win her second women’s singles title at the Syed Modi International badminton tournament here on Sunday. Playing in a depleted field due to multiple Covid-19 cases, top seed Sindhu hardly broke her sweat to get past Bansod 2113, 21-16 in a lop-sided title contest.
The final lasted just 35 minutes.
It was former world champion Sindhu’s second Syed Modi title after having annexed the BWF World Tour Super 300 event in 2017.
Before that, seventh seeded Indians Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto clinched the mixed doubles title with a straight game win over compatriots T Hema Nagendra Babu and Srivedya Gurazada.
Bhatnagar and Crasto inflicted a 21-16, 21-12 on the unseeded Indian duo in the summit clash that ended in 29 minutes.
Earlier, the men’s singles final between Arnaud Merkle and Lucas Claerbout was declared a ‘No Match’ after one of the finalists tested positive for
Covid-19.
Eight seeds Anna Ching Yik Cheong and Teoh Mei Xing of Malaysia defeated seventh seeds Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand 2112, 21-13 to win the women’s doubles crown.
The story was same for the Indians in the men’s doubles final as the sixth seeded pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud were outclassed 18-21, 15-21 by eighth seeds Man Wei Chong and Kai Wun Tee of Malaysia.
It was expected to be a one-sided women’s singles match between world number seven Sindhu and young Bansod, ranked 84th in the world, and it turned out to be exactly that.
Sindhu used her vast experience and skills to great effect as Bansod found it extremely difficult to adjust to her opponent’s game from the onset.