PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal will lock horns in the women’s singles final of the senior national badminton championships on Wednesday, in what is bound to be a blockbuster clash.
The two queens of Indian badminton have never faced each other at the Nationals before. In fact, this is the first Nationals that Nehwal is participating in after 2008.
However, the two have faced each other internationally, albeit only twice with both winning a match apiece. The first time they met across the court was at the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in 2014, when Nehwal ended a 15-month title drought by beating Sindhu 21-14, 21-17 in the final.
Sindhu was only 18 at the time but was already in the world’s top 10, while Nehwal was an Olympic bronze medallist appearing in the 22nd final of her international career, and was the clear favourite.
The next – and last – meeting between the two would take another three years, this time at the India Open Superseries. A lot had happened in the three years between the two meetings, with Sindhu going on to surpass Nehwal’s Olympic achievement by winning the silver in Rio last year.
Nehwal had just returned to the circuit after a knee injury, and subsequent surgery, kept her out of the second half of 2016. Sindhu was the favourite this time around and, although she was given a tough fight by Nehwal, ended up winning the quarter-final match in straight games, 21-16, 22-20. Sindhu would go on to win the tournament, beating her Rio conqueror Carolina Marin in the final.