Nehwal defeats Sindhu to defend senior national title

In a battle between the Indian shuttle queens, Saina Nehwal toppled top seed PV Sindhu for the second year as she claimed the senior national title in women's singles final with a 21-18, 21-15 victory in Guwahati on Saturday.

In spite of having a slow start, Nehwal gave a neck-to-neck challenge to Sindhu. At the break of first game, Nehwal led Sindhu by an 18-15 margin.

Sindhu made a solid comeback to win two straight points to make it 17-18. However, Nehwal, who was playing with a lot of variety, took control and sealed the game 21-18.

In the second game, Sindhu took an early lead 2-0 but Nehwal again turned the table in her favour. At a point Sindhu was leading Nehwal 5-3, but soon after the latter equalled the points 5-5.

Nehwal went onto break with an 11-9 lead as Sindhu kept making unforced errors. After the break, while maintaining her calm, Nehwal defended her title 21-15 as her pace was too much for Sindhu to handle.

Earlier on the same day, Sourabh Verma clinched his third consecutive title by defeating Lakshya Sen 21-18, 21-13 in the men's singles final.