Top seed Anup Sridhar and Saina Nehwal in men's and women's finals

Top seed Anup Sridhar and Saina Nehwal of PSPB overcame stiff challenge from their respective opponents to reach the finals of the men's and women's singles of the Pramod Mahajan All India Senior Ranking tournament at Siri Fort Sports Complex on Saturday.



Sridhar prevailed over his Banglorean mate Arvind Bhatt 21-19 21-16 while Saina fought back to get the better of third seed Aditi Mutatkar 18-21, 21-13 21-12. Saina will meet Sayali Gokhale, who came off another three setter to beat Dhanya Nair 18-21 21-6 21-18.

In another men's semifinal, seventh seed J B S Vidyadhar upset second seed P Kashyap 22-20 16-21 21-15 to set-up a title clash with Sridhar. In the most awaited semifinal, Sridhar faced a tough time in putting the breaks over a rampaging Bhatt, who at one point was running away with the first game.

Bhatt hit a flurry of powerful smashes right from the start, that left Sridhar gasping for breath. Bhatt raced to a 10-2 lead and Sridhar had no clue about how to stop the storm.Sridhar waited for his time patiently and came back into the match much like a seasoned pro that he has matured into in the international circuit this year.

Bhatt, who has made a stunning come back after a long injury-layoff and notched up quite a few impressive title wins in 2007,



Sridhar leveled score at 18-18 and then took the lead before closing the match 21-19. It was too much for Bhatt, who led in most part of the game but failed to deliver the killer punch.

Bhatt looked a bit tired in the second game and reserved his stinging smashes for big points, keeping his all-attacking game at the back-burner.

Both players fought neck and neck and at 10-10, it was anybody's game, but then Sridhar stepped up the gas and went ahead with some fine net placings and closed the match.

The script in the first women's singles semifinal was not much different where Saina met a fierce competitor in Aditi Mutatkar, who showed firepower and enough promise for the future.

But Aditi met fire with fire and the scores were leveled at 11-11 before Saina pocketed seven points in a row and that changed the face of the match. She closed the match 21-13.

Aditi made a few errors in the decider and Saina broke away from six-all, and did not look back. "I have come close to her in last few matches. I know that I can beat her. I have a better technique and the only thing I need is experience at the higher level," Aditi said .