PV Sindhu wins gold at Commonwealth Games 2022, creates history

Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu clinched on Monday (8) India's first gold medal in Badminton at the ongoing Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022 and the first women's singles CWG gold medal of her career by defeating Canada's Michelle Li in the final.

Sindhu, who has two Olympic medals to her credit, was a dominant figure in the match, though her opponent competed well. The Indian won the match in straight two games 21-15, 21-13.

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Sindhu got off to a great start and halfway through the first game, she was leading by 11-8. Li offered her Indian opponent great competition but fell short in every rally. The result was a 21-15 win for Sindhu in the first game.

Li started the second game on a good note. But Sindhu took advantage once again within no time. The Canadian kept making errors and it kept widening Sindhu's lead with every failure. Halfway through the second game, Sindhu was in an advantageous position with an 11-6 lead. She needed 10 more points to take home the first CWG 2022 gold medal for India in badminton.

After the break, things started more even, with both players getting two points quickly due to errors committed by their opponent. Sindhu and Li had an exciting rally of 57 shots, which concluded with the Indian losing a point. Li was slowly gaining an advantage over Sindhu as she was cutting the deficit. Eventually, Sindhu's lead was reduced to 13-11.

Sindhu kept fighting through the second game and eventually won it by 21-13. With the win, she also clinched her first-ever women's singles medal in Commonwealth Games 2022 and India's first-ever gold in badminton at CWG 2022.

Sindhu's gold, India's 19th overall in this edition, saw India going up to the fourth position in the medal tally with 56 medals after Australia (174), England (166) and Canada (91).