LUCKNOW, Jan 25:
Saina Nehwal staged a scintillating comeback to defeat reigning world champion Carolina Marin and retain the women’s singles title, while Parupalli Kashyap beat K Srikanth in an all-India final to win men’s singles crown of the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here today.
World number three Saina scraped past the seventh-ranked Spaniard 19-21 25-23 21-16 in a see-saw battle lasting an hour and 19 minutes to bag the title.
With the gruelling win, Saina maintained her 100 per cent win record against Carolina in three career meetings.
Third seeded Kashyap, meanwhile, stunned world number five Srikanth 23-21 23-21 to clinch the men’s sigles title after a gruelling 52-minute contest.
Saina showed steely resolve after losing the first game from a 16-12 cushion. The match could have been easier for the Hyderabadi had she not allowed Carolina to come back after gaining a healthy lead on more than one occasion.
Saina was surging ahead in the second game as well with a 10-6 lead before the 21-year-old Spaniard fought back to go 15-12 up. It was a neck and neck battle from thereon with the Indian saving a couple of match points. She eventually managed to level the match on her third game point.
The Hyderabadi did not repeat the mistakes of the first two games in the deciding third game, taking a 9-4 lead before wrapping up the match on her third match point. The men’s singles final match turned out to be a closely fought affair with both players refusing to give an inch.
In the opening game, Kashyap managed to take a lead on a couple of occasions but every time top seed Srikanth levelled the scores at some stage. (PTI)
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