CWG 2022 / PV Sindhu wins her maiden GOLD medal at CWG beat Canada Michelle Li in womens singles

CWG 2022 | Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu on Monday won the Commonwealth Games badminton women's singles gold after beating Canada's Michelle Lee in straight games in the final. World No. 7 Sindhu also avenged her loss against world No. 13 Michelle 21-15, 21-13 in the semi-finals of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Sindhu won the bronze medal in 2014, while Michelle managed to win the gold medal. This is Sindhu's ninth win in 11 matches against Mitchell. This is Sindhu's third individual medal at the Commonwealth Games. He also won a silver medal at the 2018 Gold Coast Games. Sindhu was also a part of the silver medal winning Indian mixed team in the ongoing Games, which lost to Malaysia in the final.

4th medal in Badminton competition of Birmingham Games

In the final, Sindhu's left leg was bandaged, which affected her movement to some extent and it also affected her performance. He gave Mitchell a chance to score easy points on a few occasions. Sindhu did well in the rally and her drop shots were also strong. Mitchell made very simple mistakes for which he had to bear the brunt. This is India's fourth medal in the badminton competition of the Birmingham Games. Earlier, Kidambi Srikanth won the men's singles while the mixed team pair of Trisha Jolly and Gayatri Gopchand won bronze medals in the women's doubles, apart from the mixed team silver.

Mitchell made a simple mistake in the first game. He hit several shots outside and got entangled in the net as well. Both her cross court and straight smashes, however, were strong, which troubled Sindhu as she was not able to move fast. The first game saw a struggle for each point between the two players. Sindhu took three consecutive points to lead 3-1 but Mitchell leveled the score at 3-3. Mitchell fired two consecutive shots at 7-7 to take Sindhu to a 9-7 lead.

Mitchell then struck out two more shots to help Sindhu take an 11-8 lead till the break. The Canadian player hit two consecutive shots in the net and one outside after the break to take Sindhu to a strong 14-8 lead. Sindhu took the lead to 16-9. Mitchell scored 15-18. Sindhu scored with a drop shot and then got five game points when Mitchell hit the net. Sindhu won the first game by playing a shot on Mitchell's body.

In the second game too, Sindhu started well. Michelle's mistakes were not taking the name of less. She was continuously hitting shots in and out of the net, taking advantage of which Sindhu took an 8-3 lead. Mitchell deflected a shot in the nets to lead Sindhu 11-6 at the break.

Mitchell then came back and managed to score 11-13. The Canadian player then gave Sindhu a chance to take a 15-11 lead by hitting two consecutive shots in the net. Sindhu took the lead 19-13. Mitchell's shot outside earned Sindhu seven championship points after which the Indian clinched the gold medal with a flamboyant cross-court smash. With this win of Sindhu, India's tally of gold medals has reached 19. India has won a total of 56 medals in the ongoing Commonwealth Games.