Sai Gets First Win of the Season, Tai Tzu Ying Shines at PBL Match

Lucknow, Jan 27 (PTI) World Championships bronze medallist Sai Praneeth notched up his first win of the season while world No. 2 Tai Tzu Ying continued her winning streak in Bengaluru Raptors' match against Pune 7 Aces in the Premier Badminton League here on Monday.

Having never played Yew on the BWF World Tour, the world No. 11 Sai Praneeth took some time to figure out the Singaporean. Yew was coming after the high of beating 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap in Pune's first tie of the season.

Carrying that momentum into this match, Yew stormed back from a 2-4 deficit to move ahead to 10-8. His pace and power really troubled the former Singapore Open champion India who conceded the opening game 10-15.

Change of ends, however, worked well for the Raptors ace. By injecting pace into his shots, Sai Praneeth was able to turn around the match. Quick footwork and brilliant anticipation skills took the Indian to a huge 11-4 lead. It was then a matter of time before he took the second game 15-7.

Sai Praneeth never relented after that and was able to maintain his aggression. The flurry of attacking shots from Sai Praneeth's end took the wind out of Yew's sails as the Raptors star raced away to a 10-15, 15-7, 15-8 win.

"It was a good game. I saw he beat Kashyap the last time. I am really happy with the win and I hope to continue the momentum. This is definitely a confidence booster. Hope this game is the turning point for us," said Sai Praneeth after his victory.

The early stages of the women's singles clash between former world No. 1 Tai Tzu and Pune's Rituparna Das turned out to be lopsided as the former Indian national champion really struggled to keep up with the Chinese Taipei ace. Tai Tzu was fully in control of every aspect of the game before pocketing the opener 15-3.

The scene changed in the second game initially as Das relied on some exquisite placement of the shuttle to put Tai Tzu in a spot of bother. Infusing her strokes with a lot of power, Das built a strong lead of 9-5 but her advantage soon got erased once Tai Tzu found her rhythm. The Raptors Trump first levelled 9-9 before finishing it off 15-3, 15-9 for her third win of the season.

Earlier, the 22-year-old promising talent, Ansal Yadav gave a good account of himself on his PBL debut though he lost to world No. 71 Kazumasa Sakai of the Aces. Showing a lot of determination, the Bengaluru player went down fighting to Sakai 14-15, 9-15. PTI PDS

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