76th Senior National Badminton Championships: Neha Pandit to meet P.V. Sindhu in title match
India’s young shuttler Neha Pandit has set up a clash with P.V. Sindhu in the title match as she has defeated Sayali Gokhale in semi-final encounter of the 76th Senior National Badminton Championships 2012, on Tuesday, January 24, in India.
Neha, who was second seed in the tournament, has been showing her remarkable skills throughout the event and continued her roller-coaster performance in the semi-final as well.
The higher ranked Neha took two games of 41 minutes to overpower Gokhale who was placed at number three in Women’s Singles draw of the event.
Neha started the opening set in an entertaining manner as she played with wonderful aggression and created pressure on her lower ranked rival. She took an early lead by displaying her impressive skills and established an impressive gap until the end of first
half.
After the break, Sayali tried to tackle the aggression of her higher ranked team-mate but failed to play positive badminton. She threw away many points by executing negative strokes which helped her opponent to extend her lead.
Neha was composed and relaxed in the game as she played with precision and did not play negative strokes. With her planned and accurate play, Neha took the opening game with a reasonable 21-17 score on the board.
In the second set, Sayali changed her game plan to put pressure on her rival but again failed to impress the crowd as she lost her control over the pace of bird. Her strokes landed wide of the side lines or she threw the bird into the net.
On the other hand, Neha did not show any sign of urgency as she was relaxed in the court. However, she controlled and dictated the pace of rallies and managed a superb gap until the one-minute break in second set.
After the interval, Neha remained ahead of her opponent by playing with wonderful accuracy. She did not miss any chance to stretch her lead against her compatriot and won the set with a 21-13 score on the board. The overall result of this contest was 21-17
and 21-13.
In the final showdown, Neha will take on P.V Sindhu who overpowered Aditi Mutatkar in another semi-final fight of the tournament.
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