Third win for Hyd

Created On: 23 Aug 2013 2:07 PM IST

Hyderabad Hotshots won the first leg of Vodafone IBL here at Pune today with a team score of 3-2 against Mumbai Masters. At one point, Hyderabad Hotshots seemed to be hijacking the Tie with women’s single, Men’s single and Men’s double in their favour after an initial loss of Ajay Jayaram to Lee Chong Wei. But the smashing hits of Vladimir Ivanov and N Sikki Reddy ensured that the win was restricted to 3.

Pune (PTI): Hyderabad Hotshots won the first leg of Vodafone IBL here at Pune today with a team score of 3-2 against Mumbai Masters. At one point, Hyderabad Hotshots seemed to be hijacking the Tie with women’s single, Men’s single and Men’s double in their favour after an initial loss of Ajay Jayaram to Lee Chong Wei. But the smashing hits of Vladimir Ivanov and N Sikki Reddy ensured that the win was restricted to 3.

Elated at her team winning the Tie, Saina Nehwal said, “Today has been a very lucky day for our team. We did really well and gave our best. Ajay also put a very good fight and tried to pull through but lets not forget that he was playing against Lee Chong Wei.”

“I love the crowd here at Pune. It is among the most enthusiastic fan group I have seen. I am happy that Badminton is growing in popularity and IBL has been instrumental in really increasing the interest levels,” she added. On being asked about her favorite team, Saina quipped, “Ofcourse Hyderabad! It is the best and my favorite team.” Earlier, N Sikki Reddy was elated at winning the mixed doubles and gave lot of credit to her partner Vladimir Ivanov. She said, “We played really well. Vladimir kept encouraging me and allowed me to play the shots I was best at. This boost my confidence and we were able to win the match.”

Post his win Lee Chong said,” Initially the wind was very high and I decided to start slow. It took me some time to adjust but the warm up gave good result. I am happy with the win. We are one up already.” Post her easy win Saina Nehwal said, ”It feels so good to win all the matches I have played so far. I came here for the World Championship last time and got the same support from Pune. I am glad to once again make my fans in Pune happy.”

Shem V Goh and Khim Lim Wah said, “Both Reddy and Attri played very well which put us under pressure from the beginning. But the cheers of crowd for our team brought us back in game. There was no way we could let them down.” Speaking on his win S Tanongsak said, “I really enjoyed playing. Marc was good competition for me but my confidence levels were very high from the beginning and it reflected in my winning shots.”