Saina sets date with Sindhu in singles final

World No 3 P V Sindhu set up an all-Indian women’s singles final with World No 12 Saina Nehwal in women’s badminton competition at the 21st Commonwealth Games yesterday.While Sindhu thrashed Canada’s Michelle Li in straight games 21-18, 21-8 in the semi-final, Saina overcame a stiff contest from Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour winning by 21-14, 18-21, 21-17, and set her date with her compatriot in the summit clash today. Both Sindhu and Saina kept their unbeaten run alive and their victories over lower-ranked opponents went on expected lines.Sindhu started with a slender 11-10 lead midway into her first game against the Canadian, before extending to 14-11 and then to 19-15. The Indian, however allowed the Canadian to sneak in a few points towards the end but managed to wrest back the lead and clinch the tie in 22 minutes.The second game witnessed a complete domination from the Rio Olympics silver medallist, breezing away with a 11-4 lead at the break before stretching her lead to 18-8 and eventually closing the contest in mere 14 minutes. Earlier, London bronze medallist Saina defeated the World No.18 Scottish 21-14, 18-21, 21-17 in a pulsating semi-final contest that lasted for an hour and five minutes.Saina opened up a 5-0 lead early in the first game before Kirsty managed to open her account to trail 8-11 midway. Coming back, there was no stopping the Indian who raced to a 17-13 lead before closing the game in 21 minutes.The second game also started on similar lines with Saina opening up with a 4-0 lead before stretching it further to 11-3 at the breather. Saina continued her domination in the second half but Kirsty came back strongly to square things at 15-15. From there on, Kirsty never looked back and managed to lead for the first time at 18-17 before closing the game in 23 minutes.In the decider, Saina gathered herself to surge ahead with a 7-2 lead before Kirsty reduced the deficit to trail 7-11 midway. Coming back, Saina never allowed the Scottish girl to settle down.Indian star shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and the men’s doubles pair of Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty reached the finals while the women’s doubles combine of Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy bagged the bronze medal.Ashwini, however, failed to grab a bronze medal in the mixed doubles partnering Satwik, even as H S Prannoy suffered defeat in the men’s singles bronze-medal playoff.In the men’s singles, World No 1 Srikanth set his date with World No 7 and Malaysian legend Lee Chong Wei in the summit clash .While Srikanth registered an easy 21-10, 21-17 straight games victory over England’s Rajiv Ouseph, Chong Wei overcame World No.11 Prannoy 21-16, 9-21, 21-14. Prannoy then lost to World No.22 Ouseph 21-17, 23-25, 9-21 in the men’s singles bronze medal match at the Carrara Sports Arena here.In the men’s doubles, Satwik and Chirag thrashed Sri Lanka’s Sachin Dias and Buwaneka Goonethilleka 21-18, 21-10 to enter the final, where they will take on English pair of Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis today. In the women’s doubles action, Ashwini and Sikki bagged the bronze medal, beating Australians Setyana Mapasa and Gronya Somerville 21-19, 21-19.The Indian duo earlier had lost to Malaysia’s Mei Kuan Chow and Vivian Hoo 21-17, 15-21, 4-21 in the semi-finals. Ashwini and Satwik had a poor day in the mixed doubles. They first lost 22-20, 18-21, 16-21 to England’s Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith in the semi-final. The Indian pair then lost 19-21, 19-21 to Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh of Malaysia in the bronze medal playoff.