It was double bonanza for India at the Canada Open as B Sai Praneeth and Rio-bound men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy clinched twin crowns after winning their respective title clash at the USD 55,000 Grand Prix badminton tournament in Calgary.
The 23-year-old Praneeth, young ONGCian, seeded fourth, dished out a dominating game to defeat Korea's Lee Hyun Il 21-12 21-10 in the men's singles final that lasted less than half an hour on Sunday at the Markin MacPhail Centre.
Yesterday, history changed as the Andhra Pradesh lad stood at the podium with his maiden Grand Prix crown at his hands.World No. 37 Praneeth hardly broke any sweat against Lee, leading all throughout right from the start to end in both the games. The third seeded Korean couldn't put up any fight against the Praneeth, who jumped to a 10-2 lead in the opening game and then kept moving ahead to pocket the game comfortably.
In the second game, Praneeth surged to an 8-0 lead and then kept moving ahead to slam the door on the Korean. On Saturday, Lee had defeated top seed Ajay Jayaram of India 21-9 21-8 in the semifinals, while Praneeth had eked out a difficult 22-20 19-21 21-12 win over France's Brice Leverdez.
The results (finals):
Men: Singles: B. Sai Praneeth bt Lee Hyun Il (Kor) 21-12, 21-10.
Heartiest congratulation to our young executive for an astounding victory. ONGCReports wishes him all the best for his future endeavors.
