India Open Super Series: Saina & Srikanth Enter Finals, Recreate Unique China Open Achievement

Saina Nehwal and K Srikanth entered the final of the Women’s and Men’s Singles event, respectively. After China Open 2014, when both won the title, this is only the second time when two Indians have entered the finals of a major Badminton event. Before her semifinal win, Saina was assured of World No. 1 ranking too as her competitor in the race 2nd seed Carolina Marin lost her semifinal match. In other events Men’s Doubles will see 7th seed Danish pair fighting against 3rd seed chinese pair, while Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles will see the top seeds meeting in the final tomorrow.

India Open 2015 for Indians: 1st Round (March 25), 2nd Round (March 26), Quarterfinal (March 27)

Top Seed Saina Enters Final
Before her semifinal match, she got the confirmation to become the second non-chinese Woman, after Tine Baun of Denmark to be World No. 1 in Women’s Singles. Carolina needed to enter the final and defeat Saina to snatch the opportunity from Saina. But Carolina lost the semifinal to third seed Ratnchanok Intanon from Thailand 21-19, 21-23, 22-20 in a marathon match that lasted 1 hour 14 minutes.

Being already confirmed as World No. 1, the second Indian to achieve the feat, Saina Nehwal defeated Yui Hashimoto from Japan 21-15, 21-11 in 43 minutes.

She will play the final against Ratnchanok Intanon from Thailand.

2nd Seed Srikanth
Srikanth defeated Song Xue from China 21-16, 21-13 in 42 minutes to the final date with 6th seed Viktor Axelsen from Denmark, who defeated Tommy Sugiarto, who has earlied defeated Lin Dan from China.

K Srikanth is eying his third major title after winning Thailand Open )2-13), China Open (2014) and Swiss Open (2015).

He has finished Runners up twice for the last two consecutive India Open Grand Prix Gold.

Other Finalists

Men’s Doubles: 3rd seed Chai Biao/Wei Hong (China) vs 7th seed Conrad-Petersen/Kolding (Denmark)
Women’s Doubles: Top seed Misaki/Ayaka (Japan) vs 2nd seed Ying/Yu (China)
Mixed Doubles: Top seed Joachim Fisher/Christina (Denmark) vs 2nd seed Cheng/Yixin (China)