To the delight of Mumbai Masters, World number 1 Lee Chong Wei and former women's world number 1 Tine Baun won against Krissh Delhi Smashers by 4-1 in the Indian Badminton League at the NSCI Stadium courts on Tuesday.
Lee sneaked past his contender Daren Liew in the first men's singles while All England women's champion Tine Baun started with a flying 2-0 for Mumbai.
Actually, Lee missed Mumbai's first two ties against Banga Beats and Pune Pistons when he joined the team just before this clash. He raced away with a 21-12, 21-16 victory against the World number 17 Liew in 35 minutes to help the hosts take a 1-0 lead.
Interestingly Baun, who retired from international badminton after winning her third All England title in March as well as ranked 11th in the BWF rankings, thrashed former national champion Arundhati Pantawane and ranked 54th by 21-11 21-13 in just over half an hour to enhance Mumbai's advantage.
On the other side, Delhi slowed down Mumbai's lead to 2-1 when their apex men's doubles pair of Kon Kiet Keat and Tan Boon Hoeng of Malaysia rallied after dropping the opening game to overpower the Indian combination of Sumeet Reddy and Manu Attri by 14-21 21-15 11-7. Meanwhile, Mumbai's gamble of fielding European champion Marc Zwiebler instead of the successful Russian Vladimir Ivanov emerged to be good as the German trounced his Indian opponent B Sai Praneeth by 18-21 2-10 11-9.
Lee and Baun joined hands to clinch the last encounter which is the mixed doubles match by overcoming Delhi's partnership of V Diju and Prajakta Sawant by 21-18 15-21 11-5.
In fact, this was Mumbai's second victory in the league, having defeated Banga Beats previously before losing to state opponents Pune Pistons. After the victory, Mumbai gained 11 points while Delhi scored 7.
