PV Sindhu crushes Michelle Li for women's singles gold in Commonwealth Games 2022

Birmingham, August 8: PV Sindhu added Commonwealth Games gold to her crowded trophy cabinet when she beat Michelle Li of Canada in straight sets on Monday (August 8).

Sindhu won 21-15, 21-13. It was a logical progression for the ace Indian shuttler as she had won a bronze on CWG 2014 and silver in CWG 2018.

Sindhu has now kept her tryst with gold at Birmingham 2022 with a win over Li. It was also Sindhu’s 9th career win over the Canadian in 11 meetings.

Sindhu had a slight fitness worry coming into the final as her left ankle was taped heavily, and the stress was visible even in the semi-final clash.

In the first game, Sindhu struggled to keep her rally going and looked for shorter rallies to claim points. But as the game and match wore on, Sindhu regained her rhythm and flow.

On many points, Li gave Sindhu tough competition but the Indian played the crucial points much better than her opponent to wrest the first game 21-15.

In the second game, Sindhu seemed to have returned to her absolute best and displayed a vast array of shots including that brilliant drop shots.

There was a hint of power too when she deployed that mighty smashes down the line to catch Li unawares.

The former World champion Sindhu, who also owns two Olympic medals, literally toyed with the Canadian in the second set and opened up a massive lead of five points early in the second game.

The Canadian Li tried to stay along with Sindhu cutting down the lead to 3 points at one stage but Sindhu did not allow the lead to further narrow as she again widened the lead to 5 points.

At this point, Li might just have realised the futility of chasing Sindhu and the fight seemed to have ebbed out. The spate of unforced errors too did help her cause.

Sindhu soon closed out the match for her first Commonwealth Games gold in her career.