Badminton, Japan Open Super 750: Kidambi Srikanth cruises to second round; Aakarshi Kashyap out
July 25, 2023
Former world No 1 Kidambi Srikanth scored a comfortable 21-13, 21-13 win over Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in the opening round of the men’s singles event at the Japan Open Super 750, in Tokyo on Tuesday.
This was the eight meeting between the pair, with the Indian trailing 1-6 in the head-to-head count. Srikanth’s only win prior to Tuesday came nine years ago, when he won their first ever meeting 18-21, 22-20, 21-16 at the Hong Kong Open in 2014.
In Tokyo though, at no point in the match did Srikanth trail the current world No 8.
The 30-year-old from Guntur started the match by racing to a 5-0 lead. Though Chou managed to come back to 10-8, the Indian did not slip-up.
At 17-13, Srikanth won the next four points to win the first game. He used that momentum to get to an early 5-1 lead in the second game.
Chou did manage to reduce the deficit to 6-4, but Srikanth again ceased control and started to dictate rallies.
Eventually at 16-13, Srikanth won the next five points on the trot to seal the second game and the match.
Earlier in the day, Aakarshi Kashyap lost 17-21, 17-21 to top seed Akane Yamaguchi on Court 1.
In mixed doubles, Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy lost 21-18, 9-21, 18-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Ye Hong Wei and Lee Chia Hsin.
Later today, HS Prannoy will be in action against All England Open champion Li Shi Feng of China.
The women’s doubles team of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will play Japan’s Yui Suizu and Sayaka Hobara.
