Jwala-Diju win Grand Prix gold in Taiwan

Shuttlers Jwala Gutta and V Diju on Sunday created history by becoming the first Indian mixed doubles pair to win a Grand Prix Gold in Chinese Taipei.

In the hard-fought final of the Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold tournament, the world number seven Indian pair prevailed over the Indonesian duo of Hendra Aprida Gunawan and Vita Marissa 23-21, 21-18 to achieve the feat in the Chinese Taipei city on Sunday.

Jwala-Diju had become the first India mixed doubles pair to reach the quarterfinal of the World Badminton Championship in Hyderabad early this month.

They had also won the Bitburger Open and Bulgarian Open last year.

Badminton Association of India (BAI) President VK Verma said, "This is a very good news for India. This is the first time that any doubles pair of India have won a grand prix gold event."

"They have been doing well and now with this win they have catapulted themselves to be one of the Commonwealth Games medal hopes for the country," he added.

Verma said keeping next year's Commonwealth Games in view, a number of super series tournament has been lined up for the mixed doubles pair.

"They are shaping up well and yesterday we finalised a training programme for them and they would be sent for a number of super series tournaments for exposure," he said.