A day after becoming the first ever Indian woman shuttler to become World No. 1, Saina played like a champion to get the better of Intanon 21-16 21-14 in just 49 minutes. Coming into the match with a 5-3 advantage over her Thai rival, Saina countered her opponents' deceptive game with her powerful smashes and occasional drop shots. This was Saina's second title of the season after her victory in the Syed Modi Grand Prix in January earlier this year.
On a historic 'Super Sunday', top Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth clinched the women's and men's singles titles, respectively, of the $275,000 India Open Super Series held at the Siri Fort Indoor Stadium here to continue their dominance over the badminton world.
If London Olympic bronze medallist Saina notched up a straight games victory over former world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, then young Srikanth came back from a game down to stave off the challenge of Denmark's Viktor Axelsen to clinch their maiden India Open titles in front of a packed home crowd.
A loud crowd, in fact, made a lot of difference for both the Indians. On various critical points, the difference between the two Indians and opponents were that of background shouts and screams.
The relentless chants of 'Saina, Saina' and 'Srikanth, Srikanth' helped the two shuttlers brush aside the challenge of their respective opponents to cap off sensational victories despite the presence of many leading names like Lin Dan, Carolina Marin and Jan O Jorgensen.
A day after becoming the first ever Indian woman shuttler to become World No. 1, Saina played like a champion to get the better of Intanon 21-16 21-14 in just 49 minutes. Coming into the match with a 5-3 advantage over her Thai rival, Saina countered her opponents' deceptive game with her powerful smashes and occasional drop shots. This was Saina's second title of the season after her victory in the Syed Modi Grand Prix in January earlier this year.
Third-seeded Intanon seemed to be affected by her energy-sapping semifinal against Carolina Marin of Spain that lasted close to an hour-and-a-half on Saturday. The Indian heartthrob exploited her opponent's weakness to close out the contest in quick time.
Intanon had no answers to the power and pace of the Indian and meekly crumbled.
"It was a tough match. Intanon is one player who always gives me a tough fight whenever I play her. She is very deceptive and has got some tricky shots. But the way I was moving today (Sunday), I was picking all her tricky strokes and she did not like it, so she made a lot of errors. I was expecting a tough final but it ended quite early. It was good to see so many spectators around today," said Saina after the match.
A jubilant Saina described her current form as the best phase of her life. "I think it's a big burden off my head. In the last four years, I had been struggling in this tournament, losing in pre-quarters and quarters. There were many surprises for me in this tournament – being the World No. 1 and winning the title. I am very proud of myself, never thought this day will come in my life after so much struggle. This is the best phase of my life," she said.
In the last final of the tournament, the men's singles final, world No. 4 Srikanth did not start well against the sixth seed, losing the first game to the Dane.
However, the Guntur-born shuttler showed his true colours when he totally dominated Axelsen to easily win the second game and push the match into the decider.
This was Srikanth's second win over Axelsen in as many meetings after beating the Dane in the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold final earlier this month.
Both Saina and Srikanth took home $20,625 each for their victories.
Final results:
Men's singles: 2-K Srikanth (IND) bt 6-V Axelsen (DEN) 18-21 21-13 21-12
Men's doubles: 3-C Biao/ H Wei (CHN) bt 7-M Conrad-Petersen/ MP Kolding (DEN) 21-18 21-14
Women's singles: 1-S Nehwal (IND) bt 3-R Intanon (Thailand) 21-16 21-14
Women's doubles: 1-M Matsutomo/ A Takahashi (JPN) bt 2-L Ying/ L Yu (China) 21-19 21-19
Mixed doubles: 2-L Cheng/ B Yixin (CHN) bt 1-JF Nielsen/ C Pedersen (DEN) 21-19 21-19
Srikanth on top
The men's singles final was a rematch of the Swiss Open final two Sundays ago that Srikanth won against world No. 6 Axelsen for his first title of the season. Srikanth now has a 2-0 advantage over the Dane in their head-to-head clashes.
Saina in final in last 3 tourneys
In her last three tournaments, Saina has made it to the final in each of them. Before Sunday's victory, she lost to Spain's Carolina Marin in the All England final early this month while she won against the same opponent in the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships in Lucknow in January this year.
Cash award for Saina
The president of the Badminton Association of India, Akhilesh Das on Sunday announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for Saina Nehwal on winning the women's singles title of the India Open Super Series. "This is a big achievement for Saina and Indian badminton. Young players will get encouragement. Today she has proved that she is really world's No. 1," said Das.
Sunday's win was Saina's ninth Super Series title. Her other Super Series or Super Series Premier titles were Indonesia Open Super Series Premier (2009, 2010, 2012), Singapore Super Series (2010), Australian Open (2014), Denmark Open Super Series Premier (2012), China Open Super Series Premier (2014) and Hong Kong Super Series (2010)
This was the first time Indians stood on the podium at the India Open since it became a BWF Super Series tournament in 2011. Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth were also the only Indian finalists at the India Open Super Series in five years.
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