Olympic bronze-medallist shuttler Saina Nehwal fought through a troubling knee to clinch her fourth title of the year by lifting the Denmark Open Super Series Premier trophy with a dominating win in the final here today.
The 22-year-old Saina, who was competing in her first tournament after the London Games, won 21-17 21-8 against Schenk in 35 minutes to notch up her second Super Series Premier title which fetched her $30,000 from a total purse of $400,000.
“I thank Denmark and the Indian fans here for supporting me. I never expected to win this tournament,” an elated Saina said after the win which took her overall lead against Schenk to 6-3.
The match began a few minutes past the scheduled time as a false fire alarm went off at the venue.
Both players waited at their respective ends of the court with Schenk seemingly restless, even as the Indian stood next to the umpire with a confident smile on her face.
Playing in her fourth final of the year, Saina made a resounding start reeling off four straight points with a mix of her trademark crosscourt smashes to which Schenk had no response.
“There were a lot of things which I did after Olympics which made me fresh but every tournament is tough. My right knee was not really in perfect shape but I thank God for giving me the energy to win the title,” said Saina who had beaten world number one Yihan Wang in the semifinals.
Saina was ahead 8-2 just three minutes into the match, which included five smash winners.
But Schenk clawed her way back to make it 9-9 with Saina being a shade slow in her returns.