Badminton: Saina Nehwal won Hong Kong Super Series title

Hong Kong: Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal won the Hong Kong Super Series title by beating Wang Shixian of China in the finals on Sunday. In a keenly contested match, Saina fought back from being a game down to win 15-21, 21-16, 21-17.
Saina, who dropped to fourth in the world rankings, is likely to inch closer to the number-one spot with this victory.
The 20-year-old Indian capped her career's fourth Super Series title triumph in a gruelling one hour and 11 minutes summit clash at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium.
Saina played a tactical game after she lost the first game and clawed her way back with some fast-paced rallies and powerful smashes to outwit the Chinese world number five.
In the second game, Saina jumped to 11-5 from 5-5 but Shixian narrowed the gap to 11-10 before the gutsy Indian surged ahead to 19-11 by registering seven straight points.
But Saina missed a couple of points on the baseline and nets to allow Shixian close the gap to 19-16. But with the Chinese hitting the shuttle out, Saina was back into the match.
In the edge-of-the-seat decider, Saina and Shixian were locked in a gruelling battle and didn't concede an inch to each other.
Back into her winning side of the court, Saina involved her rival in long rallies and waited for Shixian to make mistakes.
A controversial baseline call gave Shixian a lead of 14-13 but Saina didn't give up and wrested the lead at 15-14, before being locked at 16-16.
From here on, Saina walked away with a three-point cushion with a smash, a net dribble and round-the-head drop to move to 19-16. Shixian gained another point with a smash to make it 19-17.
But Saina soon achieved the match point with another smash that floored Shixian and with the Chinese hitting the shuttle out, Saina threw her racquet to the audience in celebration.
On Saturday, Saina fought her way into the Hong Kong Super Series final with a gruelling three-game victory over sixth seed Juliane Schenk of Germany in the semifinal.
The second seeded Indian registered a 21-19, 17-21, 21-12 win over Juliane in a 53-minute semifinal.
This was Saina's fifth title of the year, which includes three Super Series wins and the Commonwealth Games gold.
The Hong Kong Open was the fourth Super Series title for Saina, who won her first Super Series crown at the Indonesian Open last year and retained it this year.