India’s Kidambi Srikanth won his maiden Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold title at the Babu Banarasi Das Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday, after beating Huang Yuxiang of China 21-13 14-21 21-14 in a cracking final.
The opening game saw the Indian get off the blocks quickly as he took a 4-2 opening game lead before stretching it to 8-3 and despite a late surge of points from his opponent eventually went into the interval with an 11-8 advantage.
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The other side of the break, saw the Indian assume further control as he raced away to a 17-10 lead before closing out the game 21-13 to take the upper hand in the final.
The second game began on an extremely positive note for Srikanth as he took a 7-4 lead early on and despite Yuxinag hanging on, led 11-7 at the break. It was, however, at the other side of the interval that the turnaround began as the Chinese international won 3 points straight to make it 10-11 before taking a 14-12 lead and then winning 7 out of the next 9 points to take the game 21-14 and complete a fine comeback.
With momentum on his side, Yuxiang started the decider in blazing fashion racing away to a 6-1 lead, but the tide started to shift from the 8-4 mark as the Indian forged a superb comeback, winning 6 out of the next 8 points to level the score at 10-10 and then went into the break with a 11-10 lead.
Clearly, it seemed as though that streak of points had deflated the Chinese and Srikanth roared his way to the title, winning 10 out of the next 13 points to win 21-13 and win his maiden Syed Modi title on his third attempt.
