Lucknow: Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu and National champion Sameer Verma began the new season on a resounding note by winning the women’s and men’s singles crowns respectively at the USD 120,000 Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here Sunday.
In fact, India scooped up three titles out of the five events in the tournament. Top seed Sindhu, who has been in rampaging form last season, brushed aside Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska 21-13, 21-14 in the summit clash, while Sameer, who had reached the finals of Hong Kong Super Series, defeated compatriot B Sai Praneeth 21-19, 21-16 in a 44-minute final.
Second seeds Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy also lay claim to their maiden GPG title in mixed doubles after beating compatriots Ashwini Ponnappa and B Sumeeth Reddy, seventh seeds, 22-20, 21-10 in the finals.
In the women’s singles final, Sindhu didn’t break any sweat as she took just 30 minutes to outplay Mariska for her maiden Syed Modi title. The girl from Hyderabad led right from the start and never allowed her younger opponent to pose any threat. She entered the break at 11-5 and 11-6 in the first and second games respectively and never looked back.
In the end, it was a couple of returns going to net from the Indonesian which sealed the issue for Sindhu. Sameer, on the other hand, fought back from 5-11 down in both the games to outwit fellow Indian Praneeth, who looked slightly in discomfort with his right shoulder and also committed too many unforced errors to hand over the match, despite earning early leads.
PTI