Lucknow: Leading Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth reached the finals of the women's and men's singles competitions, respectively of the $120,000 Syed Modi International India Masters at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium here Saturday.
Top seed and World No.3 Saina took 40 minutes to register a comprehensive 21-10, 21-16 victory over Thai fourth seed Nichaon Jindapon, while World No.5 Srikanth dug deep to beat compatriot H.S. Prannoy 12-21, 21-12, 21-14 in an hour and two minutes.
Saina dominated the match from the beginning, moving swiftly within the court. The 24-year-old took a 5-2 lead before Jindapon equalised at 7-7. However, Saina stamped her authority to gain seven points at a stretch and continued her aggressive game to take a further four straight points to complete the first game's formality.
In the second game, World No.22 Jindapon improved her game and challenged the Hyderabadi on several occasions. Even though Saina looked in control, Jindapon put up a brave fight and hung in there till the last before Saina made a perfect finish to win the second game 21-16.
With this win, Olympic bronze medallist Saina took a 3-0 lead in career meetings against the Thai.
In the other match, top seed Srikanth looked out of sorts in the first game, losing it 12-21.
But, the 21-year-old Srikanth, who defeated five-time world champion Lin Dan to lift the Chinese Grand Prix Gold 2014 title, came back strongly in the second game.
Putting up a vastly improved show, he won 21-12 and continued his aggression to win the third game 21-14 against Prannoy.
This win helped Srikanth to take a 2-1 lead in career meetings over the 22-year-old Prannoy.
Commonwealth Games 2014 champion Kashyap will meet Danish second seed Viktor Axelsen in the other last four contest later in the day, while two-time World Championships bronze medallist P.V. Sindhu faces a tough challenger in reigning world champion Carolina Marin of Spain.
