Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu stayed on course for an elusive gold medal while Lakshya Sen regained his rhythm just in time to enter his maiden final at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Sunday.
Sindhu rode her superior technical superiority to outwit Singapore’s Yeo Jia Min 21-19, 21-17 in a 49-minute contest to reach her second successive final. The Indian had also beaten her in the team event. Sindhu, who has a silver and a bronze from the 2018 and 2014 editions, was clearly the better player as she kept a firm grip on the match. In the following match, world No. 10 Sen lost his way after a dominating start against 87-ranked Jia Heng Teh of Singapore.
Sen, however, recovered to complete a 21-10, 18-21, 21-16 win in the men’s singles semi-finals. “I didn’t get in the rhythm in the second but I managed to pull it off in the end. The crowd support also helped a lot in the first game,” said Sen. Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty ensured a third gold medal match on Monday when they downed Malaysia’s Chen Peng Soon and Tian Kian Men 21-6, 21-15 to reach the doubles final.
The world No. 7 duo was too good for the Malaysians.
Srikanth third
It could have been an all-Indian men’s final but an error-prone Kidambi Srikanth squandered a first-game advantage to lose to lower-ranked Tze Yong Ng of Malaysia 21-13, 19-21, 21-10. The world No. 42 Tze had beaten Yew Kean Loh of Singapore in the quarter final.
Later, Srikanth defeated Singapore’s Jia Heng Teh in straight games to claim the bronze medal. Srikanth, who had grabbed the silver medal in Gold Cost four years ago, won 21-15, and 21-18. The Singaporean grimaced in pain after suffering cramps on his left thigh in the second game but still kept fighting till the end. In the semis, after winning the opening game, Srikanth made too many unforced errors. From 4-4 in the decider, errors rained from Srikanth’s racket, leaving him frustrated on court. With the Malaysian leading 17-9, there was no point of return for the Indian who netted a forehand on match point.
