2015 Superseries Finals: Saina Nehwal handed a tricky draw; Srikanth faces the Axelson threat

The 2015 World Championships finalists are in the same draw

The final major tournament of the year is almost upon us. Over the course of the next week, the top-8 Men’s and Women’s Singles player and the Top-8 Men’s and Women’s Doubles pairs will look to finish 2015 on a high at the Superseries Finals in Dubai.

The competition, scheduled to begin on Wednesday, will see a whole host of stars take the court, including two from India in the form of Saina Nehwal in the Women’s Singles and Kidambi Srikanth in the Men’s Singles.

For several ardent fans of Saina, the news is both exciting as well as slightly nervous as the 25-year-old is bidded in the same group as World No.1 and rival Carolina Marin and also has Tzu Ying Tai of Chinese Taipei and Nozomi Okuhara of Japan to counter.

The other half sees the two Chinese threats in the form of Wang Yihan and Wang Shixian, along with Ratchanak Intanon of Thailand and Sung Ji-Hyun of South Korea.

Comparatively, Srikanth has a much easier draw to tackle as he will up against Kento Momota of Japan, the ever improving Viktor Axelson from Denmark and Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.

The other group sees reigning World champion Chen Long up against Jan O Jorgenson of Denmark, Tian Houwei, who has played Srikanth on 6 occasions this year and won each time and Hu Yun of Hong Kong.

The Top 2 players from each group will progress through to the semifinals.

Men’s Singles

Group A

Name	Country
1.Chen Long	China
2.Jan O Jorgenson	Denmark
3.Tian Houwei	China
4.Hu Yun	Hong Kong

Group B

Name	Country
1.Kento Momota	Japan
2.Viktor Axelson	Denmark
3.Chou Tien Chen	Chinese Taipei
4.Kidambi Srikanth	India

Women’s Singles

Group A

Name	Country
1.Carolina Marin	Spain
2.Nozomi Okuhara	Japan
3.Saina Nehwal	India
4.Tzu Ying Tai	Chinese Taipei

Group B

Name	Country
1.Wang Shixian	China
2.Wang Yihan	China
3.Ratchanak Intanon	Thailand
4.Sung Ji Hyun	South Korea

Kidambi Srikanth’s head-to-head against players in his group:

Kento Momota: 3-3

Chou Tien Chen: Srikanth leads 1-0

Viktor Axelson: Srikanth leads 2-0

Saina Nehwal’s head-to-head against players in his group:

Carolina Marin: Saina leads 3-2

Nozomi Okuhara: Saina leads 4-0

Tzu Ying Tai: 5-5