Hyderabad: World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying bounced back from an error-prone first game to win her crucial trump match and give the Ahmedabad Smash Masters the edge over Bengaluru Blasters in the second semifinal of the Premier Badminton League at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here on Saturday.
Tai Tzu beat Kristy Gilmour 15-9, 13-15, 15-8 in the women’s singles — the third match of the contest — to give her side a 3-2 advantage.
Earlier, Sourabh Verma set the ball rolling for debutants Smash Masters, overcoming Malaysia’s Chong Wei Feng 15-2, 14-15, 15-10 for the first point. After winning the first game easily, the second was much tightly contested for the Indian lad.
Sourabh fell behind 6-9 but caught up with a flurry of strokes when the scores read 13-13.
They exchanged one more point each to make it 14-14. But Chong Wei came up with a perfect smash to win it.
Sourabh was back at his best in the decider, even though Chong Wei stayed with him till 9-9. Sourabh picked up a four-point lead to change the momentum and pocket the game.
The Bengaluru Blasters jumped ahead to a 2-1 lead in the next match, with Kim Sa Rang and Mathias Boe taking the trump points. They beat Lee Chun Hei Reginald and K. Nandagopal 15-13, 15-12 in the men’s doubles.
