Kidambi Srikanth, Sai Praneeth progress to Australian Open quarter-finals
June 22, 2017
Reference: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/kidambi-srikanth-sai-praneeth-australian-open/1/984650.html
Indonesia Super Series Premier winner Kidambi Srikanth and Singapore Open 2017 winner B Sai Praneeth stormed into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open Super Series on Thursday to set up a last-eight clash against each other on Friday.
World No. 22 Srikanth showed grit and determination to bounced back from a game down to beat the World No. 1 Son Wan Ho for the second time in two weeks to progress to the quarter-finals.
Just last Saturday, Srikanth had defeated Wan Ho 21-15, 14-21, 24-22 in the Indonesia Open semi-final to progress to the final where he beat Kazumasa Sakai to become the first Indian to lift the men’s singles title in Indonesia.
Exactly 5 days later, Srikanth had another gruelling contest with the first seed where the Indian prevailed. After losing the first game, the 24-year-old Indian rebounded strongly to clinch a 15-21, 21-13, 21-13 win over Wan Ho in an exhausting second-round clash that lasted almost an hour.
Srikanth has now set up a last-eight clash against his fellow countryman World No. 14 B Sai Praneeth.
Praneeth cemented his place in the quarter-finals of the tournament after brushing aside China’s Huang Yuxiang 21-15, 18-21, 21-13 in his men’s singles clash that lasted one hour and five minutes.
Praneeth had outlasted Srikanth 17-21, 21-17, 21-12 in the Singapore Open final to win his first Super Series in April.
On the other hand, Ashwini Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy lost to the Japanese pair Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto 21-18, 18-21, 13-21 in the second round match of the women’s doubles to crash out of the tournament.
Meanwhile, Rio Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu and ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal will also look to storm into the last-eight when they play their women’s singles second round against Chinese Chen Xiaoxin and Soniia Cheah of Malaysia respectively later today. Also, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will take on Chen Hung Ling and Wang Chi-Lin of Chinese Taipei in the second round of the men’s doubles.
