Hyderabad: India’s 2017 Premier Badminton League (PBL) kicked off on January 1st with a blockbuster opener where Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Hyderabad Hunters saw off Olympic silver medalist P.V Sindhu of Chennai Smashers to win the inaugural match on Sunday.
Although Marin was down 2-4 early in the first set, but she recovered quickly to snatch the game 11-8.
The second game was a see-saw battle where both Marin and Sindhu fought until 12-12 before Marin made an unforced error to trail 12-13 and then her shot failed to make across the net, allowing Sindhu to clinch the game at 14-12.
The third game was a one-sided match where P.V Sindhu was struggling while Marin quickly raced away to a 6-1 lead and completed the third set with 11-2.
“I tried to focus on the game as it was the first PBL match. However, I do think Sindhu was a little nervous because she was playing in front of her home crowd,” said Marin.
Chennai levelled the score to 1-1 with Tommy Sugiarto winning the first men’s singles by defeating Sai Praneeth.
British’s husband-wife pair of Chris and Gabby Adcock won the mixed doubles match which Chennai had marked as their ‘Trump match’. The victory gave Chennai two points and made it 3-1.
In a must-win situation, Hyderabad’s Rajiv Ouseph scored a thrilling 11-6, 11-8, 11-6 win against Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk in the second men’s singles match to narrow the overall score to 2-3.
The men’s doubles match saw Tan Boon Heong-Tan Wee Kiong clinch Hyderabad’s ‘Trump match’ by beating Mads Pieter Kolding-B Sumeeth Reddy of Chennai 11-7, 11-8 to ultimately lift Hyderabad to win the tie with 4-3.
