Bengaluru Raptors continue their quest to become the first team at the Star Sports Premier Badminton League to win back-to-back titles as they edged Pune 7 Aces 4-3 in a thrilling second semi-final at the GMC Balayogi SATS Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday. Bengaluru’s World Championships Bronze medallist Sai Praneeth was upset by Pune’s World No 73 Kazumasa Sakai but the defending champions rebounded with wins from Tai Tzu Ying, Brice Leverdez before the mixed doubles pair of Chan Peng Soon and Eom Hye Won sealed the tie for Bengaluru.
Today, the Raptors will vie for the trophy with the North Eastern Warriors, who have made it to the final for the very first time.
With the two teams locked at 3-3, it all depended on the mixed doubles rubber to decide the outcome of the tie. Olympic Silver medallist Soon and two-time World Championships medallist showed their fireworks in a fabulous 15-13, 15-10 victory over Pune’s Commonwealth Games Gold medallists Chris and Gabrielle Adcock.
World No 2 Tai Tzu Ying was the heavy favourite coming into her women’s singles clash with Pune’s Rituparna Das. But the World No 100, who had upset the 14th ranked Beiwen Zhang earlier in the season, gave a good account of herself in her first-ever meeting with the former World No 1. But Tai’s spectacular net game made all the difference as the Chinese Taipei ace wrapped it up 15-12, 15-12.
In the other men’s singles match of the day, World No 131 Mithun Manjunath of Pune put up a gallant effort against World No 39 Brice Leverdez in their first-ever encounter. Leverdez pulled through ultimately 15-14, 9-15, 15-6 but not before surviving a scare from the rising star.
Earlier, Pune began the tie with a solid display in their Trump match. World champion Hendra Setiawan and World No 10 Chirag Shetty’s sizzling partnership has been the backbone of the Aces’ success this season and they put up yet another brilliant show of power and precision to beat Bengaluru’s Arun George and Rian Agung Saputro 15-12, 15-10. It was the sixth victory for the pair in seven appearances for Pune this season.