Defending champions Delhi Acers finally registered their first win in the ongoing second edition of the Badminton Premier League with a 5-2 verdict over Chennai Smashers at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium here on Sunday evening.
Delhi, who won three matches on the trot to go 3-0 up in the tie, needed their men's doubles pair of Ivan Sozonov and Vladimir Ivanov pick up a win over the pair of Chris Adcock and Mads Pieler Kolding to put the tie out of Chennai's reach.
Coming in with huge expectations, the heavyweight Delhi pair did not disappoint and displayed a dominant performance to win the trump match 11-6, 11-6.
In the last match of the tie, Rio Olympics silver medallist P.V. Sindhu, playing in the trump match for the Smashers, was up against Tanvi Lad of the Acers.
With the tie already sealed in favour of the Acers, it down to Sindhu to salvage two crucial points and maintain Chennai's top position on the points table.
As expected, it was Sindhu who eventually prevailed 11-6, 11-7.
Earlier, the mixed doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Vladimir Ivanov beat Chris Adcock and Sindhu of Chennai Smashers to hand defending champions Delhi Acers an early 2-0 lead in the tie.
The Smashers, who were one down in the tie, looked like they would bounce back after their experiential pair produced a dominating performance to take the first game 11-7.
But just as it looked like Chennai's gamble would pay off, Jwala and Ivanov got their act together to win the second game 11-4.
In the decider, Sindhu and Adcock tried their best to get past their much experienced opponents but Jwala and Ivanov did not let go off the momentum and won the game 11-9.
In the third match of the tie, Son Wan Ho did not lose much sweat before beating Parupalli Kashyap of Chennai 12-10, 11-4 to give Delhi a 3-0 lead.
In the first match of the tie, Jan O. Jorgensen had put the defending champions on the winning path after he beat Tommy Sugiarto of Chennai Smashers.
Jorgensen came from a game down to beat Sugiarto 10-12, 11-4, 11-6.
Jorgensen started the match on the attacking note and was looking favourite to win the first game as he raced to a 9-5 lead.
On the cusp of a loss, Sugiarto, however, launched a strong fightback to take the game 12-10.
Jorgensen made a good comeback to win the second game 4-11. With the match tied at 1-1, Jorgensen was at his brutal best to end the game 11-6 to win the match and give Delhi the lead.
--IANS
ajb/dg
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