Lakshya Sen and Tommy Sugiarto won their singles matches while Dhruv Kapila and Jessica Pugh triumphed in mixed doubles to take Chennai Superstarz to victory against Mumbai Rockets in the Premier Badminton League at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai. This is the Chennai-based franchise’s second straight win.
Sen had never met world No 49 Lee Dong Keun before but that mattered little as the World No 30 was at the top of his game throughout the match. The 18-year-old was made to work hard for his win in Chennai’s first tie on Monday but this time, he made no mistake.
In a solid display that showed his maturity and fearlessness in oodles, Sen produced a brilliant array of smashes to take the first game away from the Korean. Having won five titles in 2019 and ending the year in good form, Sen was in no mood to relent.
The second game too went the same way with the Indian stamping his authority right from the start to secure a 15-12, 15-10 win for the Superstarz.
In a riveting match, Tommy Sugiarto stormed back after losing the first game to edge Mumbai’s Parupalli Kashyap 14-15, 15-10, 15-7. The two haven’t met on the BWF World Tour since 2012 with the Indonesian having a slight edge of 4-3 in their rivalry.
He faltered initially with Kashyap eking out a hard-fought opening game 15-14. But the Chennai ace found his rhythm soon after and rebounded for a 14-15, 15-10, 15-7 victory. With that, Chennai Superstarz wrapped up the tie without any hassle, as that was the trump match for the home side.
Earlier, Dhruv Kapila and Jessica Pugh played an outstanding match to upset the much-fancied Mumbai Rockets pair of Pia Zebadiah and Kim Gi Jung 15-10, 15-14. The second game was a test of nerves for both but the Chennai duo emerged with flying colours under pressure.
Mumbai Rockets, however, put up a creditable show to win the men’s doubles (trump match) and women’s singles ties later in the day as the scoreline finished 4-3 in favour of the home side. The final match of the day saw Gayatri Gopichand take an early lead much to the delight of the Chennai crowd but the more experienced Shreyanshi Pardeshi fought back valiantly to clinch a thrilling match that went the distance.