Saina rallies to lift India Open

Top seed Saina Nehwal, looking a tad rusty following a long break, bounced back in style to beat Malaysia’s Mew Choo Wong 20-22, 21-14, 21-12 in the women’s final of the Yonex-Sunrise India Open Grand Prix badminton tournament here on Sunday.
World number six Saina’s victory compensated for a disappointing show by seventh-seeded RMV Guru Sai Dutt, who went down 13-21, 18-21, to unheralded Indonesian Yunus Alamsyah in the men’s singles final, the visitor clinching his first major international title.

Both the singles winners picked up 7,000 points that should see them move up the world rankings. The top-seeded mixed doubles pair of Diju Valiyanti and Jwala Gutta ensured that India had more cause for cheer as they defeated the Singapore duo of Chayut Triachart and Lei Yao 23-21, 20-22, 21-7 in the last match of the competition.
Saina, was rather patchy as she blew a 20-18 lead in the first game, but kept her nerve to take the next two games, capitalising on a desperate Mew’s errors.
The raucous crowd that kept up a din even when a rally was in progress, irritating flies, and the sideways air drift due to air-conditioning put a premium on concentration and judgement.

However, Saina took these irritants in her stride and after the initial tentative approach, changed her stance in the second game when she turned aggressive and maintained the momentum in the decider when she opened up a 10-point lead early on to seal the match.

“I was nervous at the start and committed too many errors. In the normal course, I should have won in two games, but this being my first tournament in two months, I was nervous. In the second and third games, I played aggressively,” said Saina after the 56-minute match. Gurusaidutt hardly got going against the highly defensive Alamsyah, who benefitted from the mistakes committed by the 20-year-old Indian.
In both the games, the 23-year old Alamsyah took early leads and then kept Gurusaidutt, playing his maiden international final, under pressure, eventually cracking his defence wide open.

Results (all finals, prefix denotes seeding): Men’s singles: Yunus Alamsyah (Ina) bt 7-RMV Gurusaidutt (Ind) 21-13, 21-18. Doubles: 1-Mohd Fairuzizuan/Mohd Zarki (Mas) bt 2-Rupesh Kumar/Sonave Thomas (Ind) 21-12, 22-20. Women’s singles: 1-Saina Nehwal (Ind) bt 2-Mew Choo Wong (Mas) 20-22, 21-14, 21-12. Doubles: 1-Lei Yao/Shinta Mulia Sari (Sin) bt 2-Ashwini Ponnappa/Jwala Gutta (Ind) 21-11, 19-21, 21-15.
Mixed doubles: 1-Diju Valiyanti/Jwala Gutta (Ind) bt Chayut Triachart/Lei Yao (Sin) 23-21, 20-22, 21-7.