Saina Nehwal wins maiden India Open Super Series, K Srikanth triumphs in men’s singles

Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth on Sunday gave double delight to the nation by clinching their maiden women and men’s singles titles at the India Open Super Series badminton tournament in New Delhi on Sunday.

Saina, the first Indian women shuttler to achieve world number one ranking, clinched her maiden title here after notching up a dominating straight game victory against former world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand while Srikanth had to toil hard to register a thrilling three-game win over sixth seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the men’s singles competition at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.

While Saina, a bronze medalist at the London Olympics, played like a champion to get the better off a Intanon 21-16 21-14 in a relatively one-sided affair, world No. 4 Srikanth notched up his second successive title of the season by getting the better of sixth seed Axelsen 18-21 21-13 21-12 in a gruelling contest later in the day.
The men’s singles summit clash was a rematch of the Swiss Open final where Srikanth had defeated world No. 6 Axelsen to clinch his first title of the season.

But up first Saina, coming into the match with a 5-3 overall advantage over her rival, was not tested much as the Indian was prepared for Intanon’s deceptive game.
Saina encountered her rival with her better movements and powerful and accurate smashes to eventually wrest her second title of the season.

Saina used her powerful smashes and rode on her opponent’s unforced errors to lead 11-5 early on. She was up for the deceptive drops and half smashes which Intanon used to trouble the Indian.
After the break, Intanon gave a glimpse of her superb game as she engaged in a long rally with the Indian and her wristy dribbles to narrow the gap to 10-12.

However, Saina didn’t allow the Thai to threaten her as she anticipated well and retrieved everything that was thrown at her end. She closed the points with a smash whenever there was a chance.

Intanon had no answer to Saina’s accurate and powerful strokes as she ended up sending them wide and long or at net to allow Saina gain a massive nine game point advantage at 20-12.

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Source:Indianexpress

Saina Nehwal