Australian Open | Srikanth beats Sai Praneeth to enter semi-finals

06/23/2017

Kidambi Srikanth continued his impressive run of form at the ongoing Australian Open with a win over compatriot Sai Praneeth 25-23, 21-17 in the quarterfinal. Srikanth had defeated world no.1 Son Wan Ho yesterday following up on his impressive victory at the Indonesia Open.

Both Srikanth and Praneeth are no strangers to each other as they train in the same academy under Gopichand, therefore it came as no surprise that they fought tooth and nail in the first game. Sai Praneeth dragged Srikanth to a tiebreaker where the latter prevailed after a close contest.

In the second set, trailing 6-9, Sai won three points in a row to make it 9-9. However, he could not hold his compatriot down as Srikanth went into the break with an 11-9 lead. After the break, the world no.11, Srikanth extended his lead to 16-12, only for Praneeth to level it up at 16-all. However, Srikanth upped his game just when it mattered to take the second game and the match.

Srikanth came into the game with back-to-back wins over World No.1 Son Wan Ho, first in the semifinals of Indonesia Open last week and then once again in the clash yesterday, beating him 15-21 21-13 21-13 in a 57-minute clash.

Srikanth will now play the winner of the second quarterfinal match between Shi Yuqi of China and Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus.