Badminton

World No. 1 Pramod Bhagat struck gold in all the categories he participated in, while Sukant Kadam, the World No. 4, continued his good run and ended with a yellow medal and a silver at the recently concluded Spanish Para badminton International II.

Malaysian and Indonesian shuttlers beat their respective rivals to win the men's and women's titles at the Badminton Asia Team Championships 2022 here on Sunday. In the men's final, Malaysia eased past Indonesia 3-0 in the best of five series while Indonesia won the women's title after beating South Korea 3-1.

"We have been considering domestic tournaments for selection for a while now and selecting players in the top-25 world ranking directly. But with most senior players recovering from Covid and injury, it is a good opportunity for us to give the bench strength opportunities to make their mark in the tournament," BAI secretary Ajay Singhania said in a statement.

The 26-year old Sindhu beat Malvika 21-13, 21-16 in just 35 minutes to win her second title at the Super 300 event. She had won the tournament in 2017 as well. It was also Sindhu's first BWF title since winning the BWF World Championships in 2019, after losing twice in the finals last year -- at the Swiss Open and the BWF World Tour Finals. The two-time Olympic medallist raced to a 7-0 lead inside the first three minutes and kept the charge on to pocket the game quite comfortably in 14 minutes.

Sindhu began the match strongly and took just 12 minutes to win the first game 21-11 against Evgeniya Kosetskaya of the National Badminton Federation of Russia. The world No. 28 Kosetskaya decided to withdraw before the start of the second game and gave the Indian shuttler an easy passage to the final on Sunday. With this win, the two-time Olympic medallist remained on course for her first BWF title since winning the world championships in 2019.

Former world champion Sindhu defeated Lauren Lam of the US 21-16, 21-13 in a 33 minute clash. Both players started the match strongly. However, Sindhu went into the break with a slender lead of 11-10. From there, Indian found her groove and won the first game in 15 minutes. The Indian badminton player kept control of the court in the second game and raced to an 11-6 lead. She then pocketed the match in straight games.

India's up and coming men's singles star Sen defeated current World Champion Loh Kean Yew in straight games 24-22, 21-17, while Satwik and Chirag got the better of top seeds Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan 21-16, 24-22 to win the coveted titles. The men's singles final was definitely the marquee match of the day with two world championships medallists facing off for the fourth time this year.

The Indians came into the match as the underdogs as their opposition were ranked second in the world while they were placed at No. 10. But they showed nerves of steel to overcome the pressure of the big stage and beat their opponents 21-16, 26-24. It was their second BWF World Tour Super 500 title after the 2019 Thailand Open.

It was a double delight for India as earlier, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy won their first-ever Indian Open finals as they defeated Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-16, 26-24 in the men's doubles.

This is Sen's maiden entry in the final of a BWF World Tour Super 500 event. Sen, the third seed in the USD 400,000 event, lost a close first game 19-21 in the semi-final but came back strongly to win the next two games 21-16, 21-12 to emerge victorious in just over one hour at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall here. In the first game, Sen, who won a bronze medal in the BWF World Championships in December.