Ace Indians Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap displayed brilliant performances to clinch the women’s and men’s singles titles, respectively, at the $120,000 Syed Modi International Badminton Championships here Sunday.
World No 3 Saina came out with a soild show first to save two match points to beat the reigning World Champion Carolina Marin of Spain at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium.
The defending champion outplayed the Spanish World No 7 to win the one-hour and 19-minute tie 19-21, 25-23, 21-16 to clinch the crown.
Later in the day, 2012 edition winner Kashyap beat compatriot and World No 5 Kidambi Srikanth in two evenly contested games to come out on top 23-21, 23-21 in 52 minutes.
In the women’s final, Saina failed to start the match on a positive note as Carolina raced away to a 5-2 lead. However, the Hyderabadi came back strongly to take a vital 15-7 advantage.
Just when it was looking that the Olympic bronze medallist will seal the game, Carolina showed her class to close the gap at 17-17. The Spaniard carried the momentum with some deceptive shots and went on to bag the first game 19-21.
The second game was a neck-and-neck affair from the word go and from 15-15, both the shuttlers raised their games, not allowing the other the difference of more than a point.
The 24-year-old Indian was made to save two match points, while Carolina reverted by saving Saina’s two gamepoints but on the third it was the Indian who got the better of the second seed wo win the game and push the match into the decider.
The loss of the second game totally shifted the momentum in favour of Saina, who seized the initiative and dominated the third game to build a 15-7 lead. Though the reigning European Champion tried fighting back, it was too much to ask from the 21-year-old as Saina closed out the encounter on her third matchpoint. Perhaps the only disappointment of the day for Saina came with the annoucement of Padma awards, with her name missing from the list.
Results: (All finals): Singles: Men: 3-Parupalli Kashyap (Ind) bt 1-Kidambi Srikanth (Ind) 23-21, 23-21.
Women: 1-Saina Nehwal (Ind) bt 2-Carolina Marin (Esp) 19-21, 25-23, 21-16. Doubles: Men: 1-Mathias Boe/ Carsten Mogensen (Den) bt 4-Vladimir Ivanov/ Ivan Sozonov (Rus) 21-9, 22-20. Women: 4-Amelia Alicia Anscelly/ Fie Cho Soong (Mal) bt 1-Vivian Kah Mun Hoo/ Khe Wei Woon (Mal) 22-20, 21-15. Mixed doubles: 1-Riky Widianto/ Puspita Richi Dili (Indonesia) beat Manu Attri/K. Maneesha (India) 21-17, 21-17.
Published 25 January 2015, 21:19 IST