Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu won her maiden CWG gold medal in women's singles badminton defeating Michelle Li of Canada in straight sets at the the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Monday.
The 27-year-old Indian looked like she was on a mission from the word go in the gold medal match and raced her way to a 21-15, 21-13 victory against the World No 13.
Li never really threatened the World No 7 during the course of the match and cut a desperate figure by the fag end of the summit clash.
With this gold, Sindhu now has five Commonwealth Games medals to her name.
The gold was the only Commonwealth Games medal missing from her trophy cabinet. She already has a bronze and silver in women's singles from 2014 Glasgow and 2018 Gold Coast respectively. Besides these, Sindhu also has a mixed team event gold (2018) and silver which she won a few days back in Birmingham.
It was a postive start by Sindhu, taking a 3-1 lead but Li made sure that Sindhu did not build on that advantage early in the game.
Sindhu played to her strengths as usual, unleashing her signature powerful smashes early in the game. Li, on the other hand, was happy to continue with the exchanges and kept the Indian guessing with her variety.
However, it did not take Sindhu too long to display her dominance. A little after the halfway stage of first set, the Indian just cruised to a 17-12 lead and looked in complete control. Having found her rhythm Sindhu won the first set 21-15 soon after.
Though the Canadian tried to keep Sindhu at bay with an array of exchanges, the Indian was always a step ahead. The second set was no different as Sindhu led by a comfortable margin of 11-6 at halfway stage.
Li was left with a lot to ponder as the Indian continued her dominance but she was not ready to call it quits yet. She came back strong and decreased the gap to 17-13.
However, it was a little too late for a resistance as Sindhu sealed the win few minutes later to bag her first-ever Commonwealth Games gold medal in women's singles.
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