A brave Kidambi Srikanth went down fighting to the second seed and Olympic champion Chen Long in the pre-quarter-finals of the $120,000 German Open in a late night match at Mülheim an der Ruh, Germany on Thursday. The 12th seed played some gutsy badminton but fell short in the end, 19-21, 20-22 in 47 minutes.
With his loss, the Indian campaign comes to an end at this Grand Prix Gold tournament.
This was Srikanth’s first tournament after a one-month hiatus that he needed for full recovery from an ankle injury and also to gear up for the upcoming Superseries circuit. The Pullela Gopichand protégé seems to have found the touch that took him to the Rio Olympic quarter-finals last year.
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He started his 2017 season with a semi-final loss at the Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold. Even though he lost a couple of rounds early at the German Open, the level of his fight speaks volumes of his confidence in his game. The 24-year-old himself admitted in his Facebook post that he played well and hopes to keep it up at next week’s All England Championships.
Srikanth had been very careful about choosing his tournaments this year after his ankle injury robbed him of three months of competitive play at the end of 2016. The break that he took after the Syed Modi International resulted in a ranking slide and the former World No. 3 is now placed at a lowly 29th.
But the Guntur-born shuttler has said that he is not concerned about his ranking and he hopes to be back in just two months if he plays to his potential.
Lin Dan crashes out
Srikanth’s conqueror Chen Long will go on to meet the ninth seed Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus in the quarter-finals.
Chen Long’s compatriot, Lin Dan, in contrast, ended up on the losing side. The third seed and two-time Olympic champion bowed out 10-21, 16-21 to the World No. 40 Emil Holst.
On the women’s side, the top seed and Olympic champion Carolina Marin continued her rampage and made it to the quarter-finals with a comfortable 21-15, 21-8 win over Indonesian qualifier Priskila Siahaya. The Spaniard will next take on the seventh seed Sayaka Sato for a place in the semi-finals.
