Kamal Ghorui
Twenty-year-old Devika Sihag capped her dream run at the Princes Sirivannavari Thailand Masters with a title after her final opponent, Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia retired midway in the BWF Super-300 title.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!The Haryana girl, who trains under coach Umendra Rana in Bengaluru, was leading 21-8, 6-3 when Goh pulled out due to a hamstring injury. The retirement ensured the first major title for Devika and also the first significant title for India quite early into the season.She is the third Indian girl to win a Super-300 tournament after Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu.Last year, Indian shuttlers struggled to do well with only Lakshya Sen (Super-500), Ayush Shetty (Super-300) and a couple of other shuttlers winning the Super-100 tournaments.Delighted with her show, the unexpected winner, who beat several higher-ranked players, including top seed and local favourite Supanida Katethong, said,“I am really happy today as this is my first Super-300 title. I’m excited to play more tournaments ahead and very happy today. I’ve played very good matches here.”Indeed, the youngster played some great matches this week. Her grit was on full display as he saved five game points to battle past a higher-ranked Huang YuHsun of Chinese Taipei in the semifinals. Devika was trailing 15-20 but scored seven straight points to stun her rival. Earlier in the quarterfinals, the world No.63 Indian caused the biggest upset when she knocked out crowd favourite and world No.16 Supanida Katethong in straight games.
