Saina sings victory song, Kashyap hums it along

Lucknow, January 25 

Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap displayed brilliant performances to clinch the women and men's singles titles, respectively, at the $120,000 Syed Modi International Badminton Championships here on Sunday. World No.3 Saina came out with a stupendous show to defeat reigning World Champion Carolina Marin of Spain to retain the crown she won last year at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium.

The top seeded defending champion outplayed the Spanish World No.7 to win the one-hour and 19-minute marathon final 19-21, 25-23, 21-16 and clinch the Grand Prix Gold crown. With the victory, Saina completed a hat-trick of wins against the second seeded Carolina in as many meetings between them. Also, this is Saina's first title of 2015.

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. Though the two have played several matches in the past, this was their first meeting in an official Badminton World Federation (BWF) match.

In the women's singles final, Saina did not start the match on a positive note as Carolina raced away to a 5-2 lead. However, the Hyderabadi came back strongly to win a number of points in the next few minutes 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-all. 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-all, both the shuttlers raised their games, not allowing the other the difference of more than a point. It was here when the 24-year-old Indian crucially saved two match points. Carolina reverted by saving Saina's two game points but on the third it was the Indian who got the better of the second seed by winning it to push the match into the decider.

Winning the second game completely 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 match point.  — IANS

Final results

Women's doubles: 4-Amelia Alicia Anscelly/Fie Cho Soong (Malaysia) beat 1-Vivian Kah Mun Hoo/Khe Wei Woon (Malaysia) 22-20, 21-15 Women's singles: 1-Saina Nehwal (India) beat 2-Carolina Marin (Spain) 19-21, 25-23, 21-16 Men's doubles: 1-Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen (Denmark) beat 4-Vladimir Ivanov/Ivan Sozonov (Russia) 21-9, 22-20 Men's singles: 3-Parupalli Kashyap (India) beat 1-Kidambi Srikanth (India) 23-21, 23-21 Mixed doubles: 1-Riky Widianto/Puspita Richi Dili (Indonesia) beat Manu Attri/K. Maneesha (India) 21-17, 21-17