Saina vs Sindhu in national final
Nagpur, Nov. 7: Olympic medallists Saina Nehwal and P. V. Sindhu will battle for supremacy in the women’s singles final of the Senior Badminton National Championship after scoring contrasting victories here on Tuesday.
Saina, who is currently ranked World No.11, hardly broke a sweat as she defeated fifth seed Anura Prabhudesai 21-11, 21-10 while World No.2 and top seed Sindhu was surprisingly stretched by Ruthvika Shivani before prevailing 17-21, 21-15, 2111 in the semifinals.
In the men’s singles, it will be a clash between World No.2 Kidambi Srikanth and giant-killer H. S. Prannoy in a repeat of their semifinal battle at the French Open Super Series a little over a week ago.
Second seed Prannoy overcame Subhankar Dey 21-14, 21-17, while top seed Srikanth saw off young rising shuttler Lakshya Sen 21-16, 21-18.
The possibility of a Saina versus Sindhu clash was high after the star shuttlers confirmed their participation in the tournament.
Saina hasn’t competed at the Senior Nationals since winning back-toback titles in 2006 and 2007, while Sindhu too gave the domestic tournament a miss after winning the 2011 and 2013 editions.
The two have met twice in international competitions. Their first meeting was at the 2014 Syed Modi International before they played each other in India Super Series this year.
While Saina prevailed in 2014, Sindhu had the last laugh in Delhi.
A lot has happened between those two battles with Saina becoming the World No.1 in 2015 and Sindhu rising to the pinnacle of world badminton after clinching the silver at the Rio Olympics last year. Saina had suffered a career-threatening knee injury too. — PTI