Pune, India: The Hyderabad Hotshots defeated the Mumbai Masters 3-2 in the Indian Badminton League (IBL) tie to top the points table at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex here Thursday.
By winning the tie, the Hotshots bagged four points and lead the standings with 15 while the Masters, who got only two points, are still second with 13.
In the first match, Hotshots’ Ajay Jayaram put up a fantastic fight against World No.1 Lee Chong Wei of the Masters but eventually went down 19-21, 21-21, 5-11 in the men’s singles.
In the first game, Jayaram took off well and used his smashes to good effect. The Indian gave the Masters icon player a tough fight but unforced errors made life easy for Chong Wei. Jayaram was leading 17-15 but a couple of more errors helped the Malaysian pocket the first game.
The Mumbai lad came back into the match by winning the second game and pushed the match into the decider. However, Chong Wei showed his experience and bagged the game and match in no time.
In the women’s singles, World No.4 and Hyderabad Hotshots icon player Saina Nehwal had a comfortably victory against P.C. Thulasi 21-7, 21-10 in 29 minutes to equalise the scoreline at 1-1.
In the men’s doubles, Hotshots’ Shem Goh and Wah Lim beat Sumeet Reddy and Manu Attri in a tough 11-21, 21-16, 11-9 match to get ahead 2-1.
Tanongsak overcame Marc Zweibler of the Masters 21-19, 17-21, 11-6 in the second men’s singles to win the tie 3-1 for the Hotshots 3-1. Tanongsak won the first game despite Zwiebler’s tough fight.
The German came back in the second and dragged the rubber to the third game which Hyderabad’s Tanongsak dominated and won the match for the Hotshots.
In the dead mixed doubles rubber, N. Siki Reddy and Vladimir Ivanov beat Tarun Kona and Pradnya Gadre 21-18, 21-19 to pull back a point for the Mumbai Masters.
