Local favourites Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth today gave double delight to the nation by clinching their maiden women and men’s singles titles at the India Open Super Series badminton tournament.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Both players were congratulated on social media.
Praising Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal for their success at the India Open Super Series, chief national coach Pullela Gopichand today said it was a ‘dream come true’ before stressing that consistency will be the key for Indian players to bring more laurels in future.
(With Agency Inputs)
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