Commonwealth Games: Sindhu one step away from winning maiden gold, Sen too makes singles final

Birmingham, Aug. 7 (PTI): Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu stayed on course for an elusive gold medal while Lakshya Sen regained his rhythm just in time to enter his maiden final at the Commonwealth Games here on Sunday.

Sindhu rode on her superior technical superiority to outwit Singapore’s Yeo Jia Min 21-19 21-17 in a 49-minute contest to reach her second successive final. The Indian had also beaten her in the team event.

In the following match, world number 10 Sen lost his way after a dominating start against 87-ranked Jia Heng Teh of Singapore. Sen however recovered to complete a 21-10, 18-21, 21-16 win in the men’s singles semifinals.

Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty ensured a third gold medal match for India on Monday when they downed Malaysia’s Chen Peng Soon and Tian Kian Men 21-6, 21-15 to reach the men’s doubles final. The world number 7 duo was too good for the Malaysians.

It could have been an all-Indian men’s final but an error-prone Kidambi Srikanth squandered a first game advantage to lose to lower-ranked Tze Yong Ng of Malaysia 21-13, 19-21, 21-10. The world number 42 Tze had shocked reigning world champion Yew Kean Loh of Singapore in the quarterfinal.

Sindhu seemed a bit restricted in her movement with the achilles of her left leg strapped. The Singaporean played some good-looking shots to make it 8-4 early on but she allowed the Indian to draw level.

Sindhu entered the break with a two-point lead after producing a straight drop.

The Indian depended on her technical acumen, producing the right shots at the right time to surge ahead.

Yeo Jia Min was too erratic to put any pressure on the Indian, who moved to 19-12 with a perfect net shot.

The Singaporean used her cross court slices to trouble the Indian, making her move diagonally to reduce the gap to 16-19. But a forehand return going to the net from her gave Sindhu three game points, and she converted it on the third attempt.

It turned into a seesaw battle in the second game with the two playing some intense rallies, but Sindhu ensured she had her nose ahead at the interval.

A wide return and one going to net put Sindhu two points away from the final. She squandered two match points out of five before unleashing a pitch-perfect body smash to secure her place in the final.