Gadre misses Polish Open double crown by a whisker

NAGPUR: The dream run of Pradnya Gadre finally ended at the 41st Yonex Polish Open 2015 at Arlamow, Poland, with a heart-breaking loss in the mixed doubles final late on Saturday night.
The pair of Pradnya and Akshay Dewalkar lost a pulsating title clash 26-28, 18-21 to Malaysian duo Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh. The unseeded Indians had their chances in both the games but lost both narrowly much to the frustration of Pradnya, who missed the double crown by a whisker.
After capturing the women's doubles title with her Hyderabad partner N Sikki Reddy, Pradnya was poised to add another title but sheer bad luck prevented her from creating history.
The world No. 81 Indian pair had the measure of Malaysians early in the match. However, some unforced errors at the crucial juncture cost them dearly. The second game was almost replay of the opening game.
The Malaysians are currently world No. 47 but they were former world No. 3 pair in the world. Chan and Goh won in 39 minutes to shatter the hopes of Maharashtra pair. Pradnya, 24, belongs to Nashik, while Akshay is a Thane resident. Both train under Pullela Gopichand at Hyderabad.
Pradnya and Akshay had earlier won Sri Lanka International Challenge (2014) and Tata International Challenge (2013). Polish Open could have been their third international title.
The 27-year-old Akshay is obviously quite dejected with the defeat.
"It was a very close loss. We could have pulled out that match. We are very disappointed with the final outcome," Akshay told TOI on Sunday.
Asked what went wrong after so near yet so far effort, he said, "Nothing, just bad luck. We actually need more practice together because Pradnya just came out from injury. We are hopeful of good results in the next tournaments."
Akshay and Pradnya will now eager to get going at the India Open Super Series which will be played at New Delhi from Tuesday.