Anand Pawar clinches Scottish International title

India’s Anand Pawar cornered glory, clinching the Scottish International men’s singles crown, staging a splendid come-from-behind 10-21, 21-11, 21-17 victory over Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai in the summit clash.

The seventh seeded Indian got off a shaky start against the tenth seeded Japanese. Pawar struggled to hit the straps from the word go, committing a slew of unforced errors much to the comfort of Sakai, who rattled along nicely, even reeling off nine consecutive points to assert his supremacy over Pawar.

The 73rd ranked Japanese notched up 17 winners in the opening game, which sums up his dominance over the 55th ranked Indian in the opening game.

Pushed to the wall, Pawar brought out his best badminton on court in the second game. He unsettled Sakai with deft drops as well as incisive winners on both flanks.

The Mumbai boy literally forced Sakai into committing unforced errors and pocketed the second game without encountering much resistance, winning it at 21-11, forcing the match into a decider.

The decider saw Pawar wrest the initiative as he never allowed Sakai to mount a serious fightback.

The Air India employee closed out the third game at 21-17.

The win should help Pawar to scale up in rankings.