*Saina Nehwal retains her singles title with win over world champ Carolina
.
The Indian city of Lucknow will be remembered by Malaysian women’s doubles pair of Amelia Alecia Anscell-Soong Fie Cho for their rest of their live. They were not given a chance but they pulled off their biggest win of their badminton career.
In the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, the pair who hail from Sabah scored a straight set 22-20, 21-15 win over compatriots Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei – the top seeds and favourites in the final of the India Masters GP Gold on Sunday for the first ever GP Gold title.
And it was a rather rare all-Malaysian final in the event. More importantly it showed that local coaches still have it in them to win international titles. In this case it is an achievement for national women’s doubles coach Rosman Razak.
Amelia and Fie Cho collected USD9, 480 for their efforts while Vivian Hoo-Khe Wei, the Commonwealth Games and SEA Games champions were richer by USD4,560.
For the winners and losers it is the right start to their hopes of qualifying for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
The men’s singles final was an all-India affair with Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap Parupalli scoring a narrow 23-21, 23-21 win over K. Srikanth while Saina Nehwal retained her women’s singles title with a come-from-behind 19-21, 25-23, 21-16 win over reigning world champion Carolina Marin of Spain.
The men’s doubles final was a breeze for Denmark’s world No 2 pair of Mathias Boe-Carsten Mogensen. The top seeds outplayed Vladimir Ivanov-Ivan Sozonov of Russia 21-9, 22-20.
The mixed doubles title went to Indonesia’s Riky Widianto-Puspita Richi Dili who defeated surprise finalists Manu Attri-K. Maneesha of India 21-17, 21-17 in the final.