Chennai Smashers’ PV Sindhu outclassed Awadhe Warriors’ Saina Nehwal 11-7, 11-8 in a much-hyped “trump match” encounter between India’s two Olympic women’s singles Olympic medal winners in the Premier Badminton League in Delhi on Friday.
The Smashers had picked this key encounter as their ‘trump’ match. In the PBL, a team can nominate one match in each tie as a “trump match”. By winning the match, the Smashers gained two additional points.
The two players gave nothing away in the first game, which saw Nehwal and Sindhu trade leads. Nehwal did her best to keep Sindhu away from executing her ferocious body smashes. Sindhu, though, exploited a bit of weakness in Nehwal’s backhand.
Despite a couple of terrific rallies between the two players, Sindhu raced away to clinch the set, 11-7. Sindhu continued to get the better of the former World No.1 in the rallies. The highlight of the second game was a 42-point rally, which ended with Nehwal hitting the net.
Sindhu had opened up a sizeable lead at 6-2 in the second game, building on her momentum from the first. From there, Nehwal came back in the contest with a series of forehand drops, which made for nervy finish.
It was evident that the 26-year-old was struggling with her fitness. Sindhu closed down the game to put her Chennai Smashers side back in the lead.