Bengaluru: The Premier Badminton League (PBL) defending champions Delhi Acers who are ranked in the bottom of the ranking table and are virtually impossible to reach the knock-out stages, got their first win of the season on Sunday by defeating the P.V Sindhu led Chennai Smashers 5-2 to salvage some pride.
Jan Jorgensen started the men’s singles match for Delhi Acers on an attacking mode when he bounced back from dropping the first set to beat Tommy Sugiarto 10-12, 11-4, 11-6 to give Delhi Acers an early 1-0 lead in the tie.
Next up, Jwala Gutta and Vladimir Ivanov of Delhi Acers rallied past P.V Sindhu and Chris Adcock in the mixed doubles event to extend Delhi Acers’ lead to 2-0.
In the third match, Delhi Acers’ Son Wan Ho wasted no time while wrapping up the second men’s singles match against Parupalli Kashyap of Chennai Smashers 12-10, 11-4 to give Delhi Acers a 3-0 lead.
The men’s doubles match saw Delhi Acers’ Ivan Sozonov and Vladimir Ivanov lived up to the expectation by picking up a Delhi Acers’ ‘Trump match’ victory over Chennai Smashers’ Chris Adcock and Mads Pieler Kolding to give Delhi Acers an unassailable 5-0 lead over Chennai Smashers.
Although P.V. Sindhu was able to claim two points in the Chennai Smashers’ ‘Trump match’ Tanvi Lad of Delhi Acers in an inconsequential women’s singles match, Delhi Acers concluded the tie against Chennai Smashers by a score line of 5-2.
Awadhe Warriors are currently leading the PBL rankings 14 points, with Mumbai Rockets at 12 points and Chennai Smashers in the third spot at 10 points.
