This story is from January 25, 2015

Saina Nehwal poised to retain title

In the women's section, World No. 3 Saina Nehwal will face world champion Carolina Marin in the final.
Saina Nehwal poised to retain title
LUCKNOW: Defending champion Kidambi Srikanth and former national champion Parupalli Kashyap chose similar routes to set up an all-Indian men's title clash in the Syed Modi International Grand Prix badminton tournament. Both overcame opening game deficits to get past their respective rivals on Saturday.
Srikanth had the better of HS Prannoy 12-21, 21-12, 21-18, while fourthseeded Kashyap came up with a stellar display to upset second-seeded Russian Viktor Axelsen 18-21, 22-20, 21-7.

In the women's section, World No. 3 Saina Nehwal will face world champion Carolina Marin in the final. She had the measure of Thailand's Nichaon Jindapon before winning 21-10, 21-16. Marin defeated PV Sindhu in the other semifinal. Kashyap committed some crucial mistakes at the net in the opener that allowed Axelsen to clinch the opening game. Leading 17-14, he made crucial unforced errors which allowed the Russian to win the game.
The second game too went neck-andneck. And at 20-all, Axelsen seemed to have the advantage as he was leading 1-0. But the Indian decided to go for the lines with his smashes, which paid off as he levelled the match. In the decider, Kashyap made his tall rival seem a mere spectator reeling off smashes to win the game comfortably. The match lasted 65 minutes.
Earlier, Srikanth started off slowly against Prannoy, who ran away with the opening game, pinning his opponent mostly on his backhand. But the World No. 5 stamped his authority in the second game not letting his rival a freehand after taking the lead at 7-6.
In the final game, both were locked at 5-5 before Srikanth's smashes and subtle drop shots forced Prannoy to crack under pressure and concede the game 21-18.
The women's semifinals were not that evenly matched as both Saina and Marin brought out their repertoire of strokes to win in straight games.
Saina was rarely troubled by the Thai girl. She had things under control from the start, and after 5-5 in the opening game, it wasn't difficult to judge who was calling the shots.
Much was expected of the MarinSindhu clash. It was a grudge match for the Indian, having lost to Marin at the Copenhagen World Championship semifinals. But, Sindhu failed to make amends and the Spaniard took her game a few notches up to tame her rival.
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