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Saina beats Sun to win Australian Open Super Series title

Last updated on: June 12, 2016 17:00 IST

IMAGE: Saina Nehwal of India celebrates after winning. Photograph: Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images.

Saina Nehwal defeated China's Sun Yu 11-21, 21-14, 21-19 to clinch her second Australian Open Super Series title.

The ace Indian shuttler had also won this event in 2014. The win was a huge boost for the 26-year-old ahead of the Rio Olympics.

Despite losing the first game, Saina improved her head-to-head record against Sun to 6-1. The World No. 12 had upstaged the Indian once at the 2013 China Open.

Saina had scored a convincing 21-8, 21-12 victory against World No. 2 Yihan Wang of China in the semi-finals. In fact Saina beat two world champions en route to the final - Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon (2013) in the quarterfinals and Yihan (2011) in the last four.

The win helped Saina clinch her maiden title of the season and pocket a cheque of USD 56,250. It also ended a rather long title drought for the celebrated Indian, whose previous title was at the India Super Series in New Delhi in last year.

Hans-Kristian Vittinghus, who played a key role in Denmark's maiden Thomas Cup triumph recently, continued with his good form, taking the men's singles title with a 21-16, 19-21, 21-11 win over Jeon Hyeok-jin of South Korea.

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