There was a moment when Chloe Lai gave Chidvi Panjala a glimmer of hope late in the opening set of the women’s singles final at the Badminton South Africa U17 Open in Cape Town on July 19.
Trailing 18-9 after breaking Lai’s serve, Panjala produced the rally of the set. She moved the top seed from side to side, drew her to the net, then lifted a high lob that Lai tracked with her back to her opponent. Lai managed to return the shuttle, but as she turned, Panjala attacked the same area.
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Caught off guard, Lai reacted instinctively in an attempt to keep the shuttle in play, only to end up sprawled flat on her stomach as Panjala claimed her 10th point.
It proved to be Panjala’s last point of the set.
Lai immediately regained control, winning the next three points to wrap up the opener 21-10 and move within one set of the national title.
The second set was more competitive, but Lai always looked in control. Despite Panjala’s determined effort, the Eastern Gauteng Badminton Association (EGBA) star consistently found another gear and closed out the set 21-16 to seal the championship.
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Ranked second in South Africa behind Johanita Scholtz in the senior women’s singles rankings, Lai capped an outstanding tournament by adding a second gold medal. Teaming up with Aiden Dednam in the mixed doubles, they defeated Zeming Chen and Aeryn van Reenen 21-12, 21-17 in the final.
Lai also claimed a bronze medal in the women’s doubles alongside Melay Pretorius.
Silver for Van Tonder
Jordaan van Tonder came agonisingly close to capping a memorable tournament for EGBA before narrowly losing to top seed Dednam in the men’s singles final.
After dropping the opening set 18-21, Van Tonder responded emphatically by dominating the second 21-11 to force a decider.
The third set, however, belonged to Dednam, who opened up an 11-6 advantage at the interval. Although Van Tonder fought back to reduce the deficit to just one point at 17-16, Dednam held his nerve to close out the match 21-18, 11-21, 21-17.
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Van Tonder bounced back in the doubles, teaming up with Dednam to claim the men’s doubles title with a 21-12, 21-15 victory over EGBA’s Yushi Jia and his partner Chen Chen.
Jia and Chen also finished on the podium after winning their third-place play-off to secure the bronze medal.
