Mumbai: Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal won the Australian Open Super Series Badminton Open title beating Chinese Sun Yu in a keenly contested affair in Sydney on Sunday. The scoreline was 11-21, 21-14, 21-19 in favour of the Indian. This is Saina’s second title in Sydney after having won her maiden one in 2014.
The match lasted more than an hour and witnessed some seesaw battle between the two top level shuttlers. According to information reaching here, Saina found it difficult to match up to her opponents’ pace but slowly crawled back to match the chinese player shot for shot.
The time when Saina lost the first set without putting up much of a resistance, many thought that the game was over, but resolute Saina came back with a bang in the second game and ensured the game move to the decider. The decider was evenly poised with both players having shown their brilliance. Saina eventually clinched the duel after holding onto her nerves like true champion. Some suoerb down the line smashes ultimately proved crucial in the end.
It may be recalled that Saina became India’s first top ranked lady shuttler in the world just a year ago by virtue of her Indian Open title triumph. She finished second in the World Championship held in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
The Indian’s graph started rising with the China Open Super Series title in November, but thereafter a niggle in the ankle forced her to skip few tournaments and eventually the form took a nosedive too.
She came back more focussed in the Indian Open but couldn’t cross the semi-final hurdle. Inconsistency forced her to bow out of few tournaments like Malaysia Open, Badminton Asia Championships, in the semi-finals. A third-place finish at the Asian Championship and quarter-final exit at the Indonesia Open Superseries Premier couldn’t satisfy the appetite of the champion shuttler.
This win in Australia at this juncture may galvanise her further to have shy at the top spot yet again.