India Open 2019 | Kidambi Srikanth qualifies for final, PV Sindhu and Parupalli Kashyap bow out

03/30/2019

Kidambi Srikanth came from behind in the Men’s singles semi-final to win against Hyuan Yuxiang and qualify for the final of the India Open. Parupalli Kashyap lost to Viktor Axelsen in straight games and PV Sindhu was also defeated in straight games in the semi-finals to bow out of the competition.

After going down in the first game by 16-21, Srikanth won the next two 21-14, 21-19 against Yuxiang to make an entry into the final which will be played tomorrow. Srikanth and the Chinese shuttler were involved in a neck-to-neck battle from the beginning of the first game. Srikanth had a slender lead of just one point at the mid-game break and the battle continued with the two exchanging points till it was 14 all. However, the 26-year-old Indian failed to match to Yuxiang and could manage to score only two more points after that while Yuxiang took the game away by a comfortable margin of 16-21. Srikanth, ranked seven in the world then came all guns blazing in the next game as he cruised to an 11-4 lead at the mid-game break. The boy from Guntur didn’t look back after that and gave no chance to his opponent to bounce back. Srikanth won the game 21-14 to push the semi-final into the decider.

The start of the third game was just like the first one where the two players matched well against each other. However, the Indian was again ahead by just one point at the mid-game break against the World no. 30. Yuxiang, then regained the lead in the close battle with the scorecard reading 17-14 in his favour. Srikanth came well to match him and level the points at 18-18 from where he took to a point with two game points to save. The Chinese shuttler managed to save one of them with a defensive pick but eventually lost the game and the match as well. Srikanth will now meet Axelsen in the final tomorrow.

In the other semi-final match of the India Open, Axelsen had an easy outing against Kashyap as he defeated the Indian in straight games 21-11, 21-17. Unlike the first semi-final, this one was a rather one-sided battle with the Danish exerting pressure from the very beginning. Axelsen had a comfortable three-point lead at the mid-game break and eventually took the game by a huge 21-11 margin. The Indian showed more fight in the second game and had an 11-9 lead at the break. After looking confident to take the match into the decider with 17-15 at one stage, he couldn’t score a single point while Axelsen stormed into final with six back-to-back points to seal the game.

Things were not different in the women’s semi-final for Sindhu either as she went down to China’s He Bingjiao 21-23, 18-21. Starting on a good note, the Hyderabadi shuttler had an 11-8 lead at the break in the first game. She had maintained her lead till a point where she had four game points. However, Bingjiao not only saved those game points after that she also took the game away from the Indian after levelling scores at 21-21 eventually winning the game by 23-21 points.

Sindhu also had a two-point lead at the mid-game break of the second one as well. She had dominated till the scorecard read 14-11 in the favour of the 23-year-old Indian. The Chinese player then made a stunning comeback to level scores at 16-16 before winning the game by 21-18 points. Bingjiao made it to the finals of the women’s singles where she will meet Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand tomorrow.

The Indian men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy also lost their semi-final match against Ricky Karandasuwardi and Angga Pratama of Indonesia. The Indonesian pair stormed into the final by a straight game win of 21-12, 21-17 points against the Indians.

India Open 2019 | Kidambi Srikanth qualifies for final, PV Sindhu and Parupalli Kashyap bow out

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