Saina Nehwal beats world champion Carolina Marin to retain title

India's badmintion champion top seed Saina Nehwal displayed a brilliant performance to save two matchpoints and defeat reigning World Champion Carolina Marin of Spain to retain the women’s singles title at the $120,000 Syed Modi International Badminton Championships here Sunday. IANS wire service reported the World No.3 defending champion, Saina outplayed the Spanish World No.7 to win the one-hour and 19-minute marathon final 19-21, 25-23, 21-16 and clinch the Grand Prix Gold crown at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium.

With the gold medal! My 4th india open title 2009, 2010, 2014, 2015 pic.twitter.com/U9AwgY1j9a

— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) January 25, 2015

Saina picked her first win of  2015 and with the victory, she completed a hat-trick of wins against the second seeded Carolina. The Hyderabadi, who defeated compatriot P.V. Sindhu to win the same title here last year, did not start the match on a positive note as Carolina raced away to a 5-2 lead. The Indian came back strongly to win a number of points in the next few minutes to take a vital 15-7 advantage. Just when it was looking that Olympic bronze medallist Saina will seal the game, Carolina showed her class to close the gap at 17-all.