Kidambi Srikanth through to the last four of Hong Kong Open Superseries

Kidambi Srikanth

After China Open, Kidambi Srikanth’s dream run continued in the Yonex Sunrise Hong Open Superseries too as he made it to the semifinals of the last superseries event of the year. Srikanth, who recently broke into top 10 of the world rankings defeated the World No. 21 local shuttler Wei Nan 21-14 21-15 in a quarter-final match which lasted for just 36 minutes.

Srikanth, who recently defeated the two-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion Lin Dan in the final of China Open started the match on a positive note as he took a strong four points lead before the mid game interval of the opening game.

But the Hong Kong shuttler fought back from 6-10 down, as he reeled off four straight points to back level the scores. Srikanth, however, broke away from there and sealed the next five points in quick succession and eventually sealed the game 21-14.

The second game also turned out to be a cake walk for the 21 year old Indian ace as he grabbed five straight points from 3-3. Leading by 20-15, Srikanth converted the first match point opportunity to draw the curtains on the challenge of the local player.

Srikanth, who is now the only Indian player left in the competition had a tough task ahead as he will take on the top seed and World No. 2 Chinese shuttler Chen Long. Chen Long thrashed the World No. 30 Takuma Ueda of Japan in the quarters.

It was a bit of disappointement in the women’s singles as the star Indian shuttler and World No. 4 Saina Nehwal lost to the World ranked 9 Taipei shuttler Tai Tzu Ying 21-16 21-19 in a 39 minute match.