Lucknow: London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and national champion P V Sindhu ensured that the women’s singles title in the Syed Modi International India Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament will remain in India after both of them registered hard-fought victories to reach the final here on Saturday.
Top seed Saina needed an hour and 20 minutes to quell the challenge of China’s Xuan Deng 21-14, 17-21, 21-19 while Sindhu packed off defending champion Lindaweni Fanetri of Indonesia 21-6, 12-21, 21-17 to reach the final of the Syed Modi International, presented by Ponty Chadha Foundation and being conducted by the UP Badminton Association under the patronage of the Badminton Association of India offering USD 120,000 in prize money.
National champion K Srikanth would shoulder the responsibility of keeping the men’s singles title in India when he takes on China’s Xue Song in the final on Sunday.
The semifinal encounter between Saina and 2010 Youth Olympics silver medallist Xuan was expected to be the first real test for the world number 9 and the Indian had to really dig deep into her experience and physical reserves to register a 21-14, 17-21, 21-19 victory in an hour and 20 minutes.
Saina, looking for her maiden title in 2014, was the first to get off the blocks and though the first game was a closed encounter the Indian was never under troubles once she took five points in a row to take an 18-11 lead.
It looked like the Commonwealth Games champion could ease into the final when she opened up a 14-10 lead in the second game but Xue was not ready to throw in the towel. The Chinese first engaged her more experienced opponent into long rallies and forced her into playing aggressive shots and in the bargain make a few unforced errors.
The decider was a battle of attrition and nerves as Xue opened up a 7-0 lead, only for Saina to draw level at 8-8. The Indian trailed her opponent for most part of the third game as she struggled to cope with her opponent’s steep drops and fine cross court smashes.
However, it was the experience of the Indian that made the ultimate difference as she pressursied her opponent by changing the pace of the rallies and then kept her nerve to clinch the final berth on the very first match point.
Later, Sindhu avenged her loss in last edition’s final, by keeping her cool in the deciding stages of the match to send the crowd in raptures.
Earlier, in the men’s singles semifinal sixth seed K Srikanth reinforced his position as the reigning national champion as he got the better of seventh seed H S Prannoy 21-18, 22-20 to set up a summit clash against ninth seed Xue Song of China, who hammered unseeded Aditya Prakash 21-10, 21-7.
