Pune 7 Aces rode on the brilliance of Rituparna Das and Loh Kean Yew to score an emphatic 4-1 win against Awadhe Warriors to virtually assure themselves of a place in the last four stage of the Premier Badminton League championship at Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here on Monday.
In the first match of the evening, former world champions Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol of Awadhe raised the bar in the decider to hand over the first loss this season to a fighting Chirag Shetty and Hendra Setiawan.
In the decider, it was anybody’s game even before Chirag faltered with his net game – committing three unforced errors in crunch time. This saw, the Awadhe duo came back strongly to clinch the issue.
Then, Awadhe suffered a huge blow as World No. 14 Beiwen Zhang, playing the Trump match, suffered a shock defeat taking on World No.100 Rituparna Das for the first time in her career.
It was a splendid display by Rituparna, especially her ability to return most of the big smashes and the vastly superior net game being the decisive factors against the former India Open champion.
“I really happy with this win which was my first against her. I played it safe, ensured didn’t make too many mistakes. And, the team supported me really well. Well, this is a very special win for me,” said a visibly delighted Rituparna later.
Later, former World championship silver medallists Chris Adcock and Gabrielle Adcock scored a fluent win over Ivan Sozonov to give Pune a 2-0 lead.
With Loh Kean Yew winning the Trump match for Pune against Subhaknar Dey, the contest was over with Pune 7 Aces taking an unbeatable 4-0 lead even before the last match was on.
Ajay Jayaram won against Kazumasa Sakai to score the consolation point for the losers.
The results: Pune 7 Aces bt Awadhe Warriors 4-1 (Chirag Shetty & Hendra Setiawan lost to Ko Sung Hyun & Shin Baek Cheol 15-6, 9-15, 12-15; Rituparna Das bt Beiwen Zhang (T) 15-13, 15-12; Chris Adcock & Gabrielle Adcock bt Ivan Sozonov & Christina Pedersen 15-6, 15-9; Loh Kean Yew (T) bt Subhankar Dey 15-12, 15-14; Kazumasa Sakai lost to Ajay Jayaram 15-6, 10-15, 13-15).
