Grand Prix Badminton League: KGF Wolves beat Mandya Bulls to bag GPBL title

Bengaluru, Aug 21: KGF Wolves carried their fine form in the tournament to wrest the inaugural Grand Prix Badminton League title trouncing a strong Mandya Bulls side 7-2 in the final at the Karnataka Badminton Association here on Sunday.

With India's badminton icon PV Sindhu watching the GPBL finals from the sides, Gloria Vinayakumar gave Wolves a perfect start winning her singles match against Ananya Praveen. The pair of Ashith Surya and Sai Pratheek won their Trump match against the duo of Hemanth Gowda and Prakash Raj to help Bulls nose ahead 2-1.

Naren S Iyer restored parity with a win in the men's singles against Anirudh Deshpande. The pair of Suhas V and Amurtha P then strengthened the lead with a victory in the mixed doubles over the pair of Madhusudan M and Ruth Misha Vinod.

With three points at stake in the Super Match with the Wolves naming it as their trump match, the trio of Hemanth, Prakash and Suhas garnered full points to seal the victory for the Wolves who took away the winner's cheque of Rs 24 lakh.

The Bulls had to be content with the runner'sup cheque of Rs 12 lakh. Hemanth was also adjudged as the Player of the Tournament and took home a cheque of Rs 25,000.

Results:

KGF Wolves bt Mandya Bulls

WS: Gloria Vinayakumar bt Ananya Praveen15-11, 15-11 MD: Hemanth M Gowda / Prakash Raj lost to Ashith Surya / Sai Pratheek (Trump) 7-15, 15-11, 14-15; MS: Naren S Iyer bt Anirudh Deshpande 15-13, 15-3; MXD: Suhas V / Amrutha P bt Madhusudan M / Ruth Misha Vinod 15-8, 15-14 SM: Hemanth M Gowda / Prakash Raj / Suhas V (Trump) bt Ashith Surya / Sai Pratheek / Madhusudan M 21-15

Player of the tie: Suhas V

Player of the tournament: Hemanth M Gowda

Source: Media Release