Saina beats Sindhu in summit clash

Saina Nehwal won the women's singles category of the 83rd national badminton championship by defeating PV Sindhu in straight games at the TRP Indoor stadium here on Saturday.

Sindhu had no answer to Saina's powerful smashes as she went down 18-21, 15-21.

At the break of the first game, Saina had a slight 11-10 lead over Sindhu. But after the break, the 2012 Olympics bronze medallist extended it to 18-15.

Sindhu then did a comeback and won two straight points to make it 17-18. But Saina showed a lot of variety to clinch the first game 21-18.

The second game also started in a similar way as Saina went into the break with an 11-9 lead. After the break, Saina extended it to 13-9 and went on to make the affair 21-15.

Earlier, Sourabh Verma won the senior nationals title after defeating Lakshya Sen 21-18, 21-13 in the men's singles final.

Meanwhile, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Chirag Shetty won the men's doubles title with a 21-13, 22-20 win over Shlok Ramachandran and MR Arjun.

--IANS

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