When Saina Nehwal decided to skip the 2017 Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold Tournament on injury concerns, many people thought that the event would lose its color. But Olympic silver-medalist PV Sindhu and many of her Indian colleagues played marvelously through the tournament stages and ensured that the Lucknow event would not be forgotten for a long time. Out of Sunday’s five finals, Indians finished by winning the men’s singles, women’s singles and mixed doubles crowns, while the women’s doubles team finished runners-up to Denmark. Sindhu credited herself with a dominant run in women’s singles category, where she didn’t drop a single game through the event. In the final, Sindhu quashed the challenge of Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska to win the women’s singles title. In men’s singles and mixed doubles, two more titles were already on cards since these were all-Indians affairs. In the end, Sameer Verma defeated B Sai Praneeth while Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy got the better of their compatriots B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa. India had also made it to the final of women’s doubles but the pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy lost to the top-seeded Danes Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen.
India was already assured of the men’s singles title since it was an all-Indian affair with 8th seeded Sameer Verma playing against 9th seeded B Sai Praneeth. In the end, Sameer took the title with a 44-minute 21-19, 21-16 victory. The third title that India won on Sunday was another foregone conclusion. In an all-Indians mixed doubles finals, Pranaav Jerry Chopra/N Sikki Reddy defeated B Sumeeth Reddy/Ashwini Ponnappa 22-20, 21-10.
India also had their chances in women’s doubles since the pair of Ashwini Ponnappa/Sikki Reddy had entered the final. But they lost 16-21, 18-21 to the top-seeded Danish team of Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen. The only category devoid of India’s presence was the men’s doubles final. That title was taken by Denmark’s top-seeded pair of Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen. The Danes turned out to be far superior to the 8th seeded Taiwanese team of Lu Ching Yao/Yang Po Han as they completed the 21-14, 21-15 victory in 41 minutes.