World No 1 and Mumbai franchises' icon player Lee Chong Wei missed his first Indian Badminton League (IBL) rubber but the Masters still managed to eke out a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Banga Beats in their opening encounter of the inaugural million dollar tournament at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here tonight.
The Malaysian postponed his travel plans but the delay didn't matter as world number 41 Vladimir Ivanov of Russia rose to the occasion and notched up a straight-game win over India's top shuttler Parupalli Kashyap in the opening match.
Kashyap, who rose three places to world number 14 today in the BWF ranking, could not quell the challenge from the Russian and lost 18-21 18-21 to concede Mumbai Masters the early lead.
However, Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei brought Banga Beats back into the contest with a thrilling victory over three-time All England Champion Tine Baun in the women's singles. Tai Tzu notched up a 21-17 21-18 victory over Denmark's Tine, ranked 11th.
Bangalore then made it 2-1 when their men's doubles pair of Carston Mogensen and Akshay Dewalkar thrashed Mumbai's Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Manu Attri 21-13 21-12.
The second men's singles was another enticing match between two equal players as Marc Zweibler of Germany and Hu Yun of Hong Kong clashed, cheered on by a vociferous crowd of around 200 spectators even as the match ended at midnight.
After an intense battle which saw fortunes fluctuate in both side, it was Marc who was awarded for his resilience as he stunned Hu 17-21 21-17 11-6.
In the deciding match, Vladimir Ivanov and N Siki Reddy defeated 21-18 21-19 Akshay Dewalkar and Aparna Balan in the mixed doubles competition to guide Mumbai to a thrilling 3-2 win over Bangalore.
With this win, Mumbai bagged four points, while Bangalore gained two points.
