India's top badminton player Saina Nehwal defeated China's Sun Yu 11-21, 21-14, 21-19 to win the women's singles title in the $750,000 Australian Open Super Series in Sydney on Sunday.
This win, in a match lasting an hour and 11 minutes, gave Saina her second Australian Open title - the first was in 2014 - and her first title of the season. This is her seventh Super Series title; she has also won three Super Series Premier titles.
In the first game, Saina trailed Sun 4-9 at one point, after which Sun pushed ahead and won the game by a margin of 11-21. The second game began with both the players going neck-to-neck at 8-8. With Sun visibly tiring, Saina won six points in a row and converted an 18-12 margin to a 21-14 win. In the deciding game, Saina, seeded No. 7 in the tournament, took the lead at 6-3 before Sun launched a revival to level the scores at 8-8. A close match continued before Saina closed out the match at 21-19.
Saina is now leading Sun 6-1 in their head-to-head tally. The World No. 8 hasn't lost to her since their first encounter at the China Open in 2013. Her last win over the World No. 12 came at the China Open last November, an encounter she won in straight games. She is further expected to move up in the world badminton rankings and return to the top 5 when the latest rankings are released next week.
Saina had, till now, been unable to reach a tournament final in six attempts since her return to the circuit at the All England Championships in March following an ankle injury. Her best finishes this year before this win had been the semi-finals of the India Open and the Malaysian Open.
The Australian Open was Saina's last competitive tournament before the Rio Olympics in August.
In the men's singles event, Denmark's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus defeated Jeon Hyeok Jin to win the title 21-16 19-21 21-11. He had previously defeated India's top-ranking men's badminton player Kidambi Srikanth in the semifinal round.