MANIKA CLINCHES HISTORIC GOLD
Becomes first Indian woman paddler to win a gold .
Indian paddler Manika Batra clinched a gold medal in the women›s singles category at the 21st Commonwealth Games here on Saturday.
Manika outplayed Mengyu Yu of Singapore 4-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-2, 11- 7) to clinch the gold medal. This is India›s first ever gold in the women›s singles event at the CWG.
Manika started off on a bad note as she was trailing 1-6 in the first game. But soon found her rhythm and made it 5-7 because of some errors on the backhand from her opponent.
The Indian player continued the same pace throughout the game and despite leading in the early stages of the game, Menyu lost the first game 7-11.
In the second game, Manika maintained a slender 4-3 lead through some quality backhand smashes and also returned her shots perfectly. Towards the end of the game, Manika raced away with couple of points and bagged the game.
In the third game, World No. 58 Manika was in complete control and dominated the game. The Indian player raced to a 4-1 lead, by forehand smashes and then never looked back.
Mengyu f ailed to return Manika›s top spin returns.
The fourth set saw Mengyu making a small comeback, counter- attacking Manika to close down the lead but at the end the Indian paddler proved superior and clinched the gold medal match with ease.
Meanwhile, Ashwini Ponnappa and N.Sikki Reddy bagged the bronze medal in badminton women›s doubles beating Australians Setyana Mapasa and Gronya Somerville
The Indian duo prevailed in straight games 21-19, 21-19 over the Australians, in a 47-minute crunch match at the Carrara Sports Arena, here.
The opening game went neck and neck with both the teams locked twice at 3-3 and 6-6 before Ashwini and Sikki edged past with a slender 11-9 lead at the breather.
Coming back both the teams tried outwitting each other with a range of smashes as the scoreline once again matched at 14-14 before the Indian pair collected four straight points to surge ahead at 18-14.
But there was more drama in store as the Aussie pair came back strongly with two consecutive points to reduce the margin to 16-18 before Ashwini and Sikki closed it in 23 minutes.
The second game saw the Australians taking an early 4-0 lead before the Indians managed to open their account. Setyana and Gronya extended their lead to 11-9 midway into the game.
After the break, India went ahead collecting four points on the trot to take a 13-12 lead, and stretched it further to 16-15.
The Australians, however bounced back to level the scores at 18-18 and again at 19-19 before the Indian duo used their experience to collect the next two points and wrap up the pulsating game and match in 24 minutes. IANS