E-Paper
Trupti tides over Sindhu current
The helplessness on second-seed Trupti Murgunde’s face after being caught by a sharp drop or a flick during her match against P.V. Sindhu was an indication enough that the sub-junior national champion is a star in the making.
The helplessness on second-seed Trupti Murgunde’s face after being caught by a sharp drop or a flick during her match against P.V. Sindhu was an indication enough that the sub-junior national champion is a star in the making.
The 16-year-old player from Andhra Pradesh was touted as the most dangerous floater in the women’s singles draw and though she had to finally succumb to the guile and experience of Murgunde, 17-21, 21-15, 21-13, she did no harm to her reputation in the 65-minute third round encounter of the 74th Senior national badminton championship here on Thursday.
Sindhu came into the tournament on a high having beaten national champion Sayali Gokhale in the Syed Modi Grand Prix tournament last month and with her 5 feet 8 inch frame it was never going to be easy for Murgunde.
The Gopichand academy trainee adopted a simple strategy of hanging in the rallies as Murgunde is not really known for her fitness levels and tends to make mistakes while going for the winners.
The ploy worked in the first game as Sindhu came back from 2-6 down to draw level as Murgunde made many unforced errors and was getting caught at the net as the Hyderabadi lass mixed things up. In the second game, however, a tired Sindhu slowed down and that was enough for the experienced Murgunde to go for the kill. Though Sindhu did manage to surprise Murgunde on some points, the task just got uphill with every rally. She will now face Sara Naqvi, who packed off 16th seed Mohita Sahdev 21-15, 21-19.
