In a delightful turnover, PV Sindhu defeated Canada’s Michelle Li 21-15, 21-13 to capture an elusive gold medal in the 2022 Commonwealth women’s singles badminton final in Birmingham on Monday. This is Sindhu’s first gold medal in singles at a multi-sport event. 2019 world champion and two-time Olympic medallist, Sindhu won silver medals at the last Commonwealth Games and Asian Games in 2018.
She won the silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics and followed it up with a bronze in the Tokyo Olympics. Sindhu had earlier won a silver in the mixed team event. “I had been waiting for this gold for a long time and finally I have got it. I am super happy. Thanks to the crowd, they made me win today,” said Sindhu after the final.
In the first game, Michelle played close to the net while Sindhu was the more attacking one among the two players. Sindhu took three straight points after the interval to stretch her lead to 14-8. Michelle rallied back with two consecutive backhand winners for 14-17 but Sindhu bagged the first game with a swat shot on the Candian’s body.
The Hyderabadi was cruising 11-6 at the interval in the second game. Sindhu remained in high spirits and completed a fine win with a cross-court winner against the Canadian opponent.
