World No. 1 Tai Tzu puts Ahmedabad ahead in badminton league

Taiwan's Tai Tzu Ying came back from an error-prone defeat in the first game, to win her crucial Trump match and give the Ahmedabad Smash Masters a slight edge in the second semifinal of the third Vodafone Premier Badminton League at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here on Saturday.

The World No. 1 beat a fighting Kristy Gilmour (Scotland) 2-1 in the Women's Singles, the third match of the contest, to give her side a 3-2 advantage on points.

Tai Tzu took the early lead 4-2 but soon started making too many mistakes, allowing Gilmour to catch up 6-6. She looked helpless as Gilmour kept picking up easy points to win the opening game at 9.

 

She fell behind in the second game too 7-9 and 10-12, giving Gilmour a whiff of victory.

But then she was suddenly on song, smashing with accuracy to level the scores at 12-12 and win it at 13.

Tai Tzu dominated the third game, racing away to a 8-5 lead. She wrapped up the remaining points too quickly to win at 8.

India's Sourabh Verma set the ball rolling for the debutante Smash Masters, overcoming Malaysia's Chong Wei Feng 2-1 for the first point.

The World No. 17 smashed his way to an easy 15-2 win the opening game.

The second game was much tighter, with Chong Wei defending a lot more confidently.

Sourabh fell behind 6-9 but caught up with a flurry of strokes at 13-13. They exchanged one more point each to make it 14-14.

But Chong Wei came up with a perfect smash to win it. Sourabh was back at his best in the decider, even though Chong Wei stayed with him till 9-9. Sourabh picked up a four-point lead to change the momentum. He eventually won 15-10.

The Blasters jumped ahead to a 2-1 lead in the next match, with Kim Sa Rang and Mathias Boe taking the extra Trump point.

The Hong Kong - Denmark duo were on top right from the start, with the No. 2 ranked Mathias Boe controlling the contest from the back of the court.

They beat Lee Chun Hei Reginald & K Nandagopal 15-13, 15-12.