India's day at China open badminton
In a historic day for Indian badminton, top shuttlers Saina Nehwal and K Srikanth clinched the women's and men's singles title of the $700,000 China Open Super Series Premier respectively on Sunday.
While Olympic bronze-medallist Saina had to draw from her reservoir of experience to stave off the challenge of the Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, young Srikanth notched up a stunning straight-game victory over two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan of China to register his maiden Super Series title.
The 21-year-old Srikanth showed nerves of steel to produce a dominating performance which helped him see off five-time world champion Lin 21-19, 21-17 in the men's singles final which lasted 46 minutes.
This is the first time any Indian male shuttler has won a Super Series Premier event ever since the Super Series and Premier tournaments were introduced.
Srikanth, who won the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold last year, had finished runners-up at the 2014 India Open Grand Prix Gold event in Lucknow and was a quarterfinalist in this year's Malaysian Open.
The Andhra Pradesh lad was also a part of the Indian badminton contingent that reached the semifinals of the mixed team event at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
It was Saina who brought the first cheers into the Indian camp when she claimed her maiden China Open title in her sixth appearance.
This is Saina's third title of the year as the Indian had won the Australian Super Series in June, besides clinching the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold early in the year.
===============================================================================
