Kidambi Srikanth progresses to the Denmark Open quarter-finals
The Indian badminton player started the match slow but soon picked up the pace to outplay his Canadian opponent to beat him in straight games.
India’s Kidambi Srikanth beat Canadian shuttler Jason Anthony Ho-Shue 21-15, 21-14 at Odense on Thursday to seal his spot in the Denmark Open 2020 singles quarter-finals**.**
Srikanth, the fifth seed at the BWF Super 750 tournament and a former champion in the event in 2017, will next face Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen - the second seed - in the quarter-final.
Up against the 22-year-old Canadian, who knocked out another Indian shuttler Subhankar Dey in the first round, Srikanth made a tentative start but soon picked up the pace, troubling Ho-Shue with his signature cross court smashes.
The Indian took an 11-8 lead into the first mid-game interval of the match. After the restart, Srikanth only seemed to grow in confidence, bringing a lot more variation into his game by utilising his drop shots and aggressive block shots to good effect and bagged the first game 21-15.
The second game saw Ho-Shue put up a much tougher fight, engaging Srikanth in longer rallies and forcing a few errors out of the Indian. The former world No. 1, though, made use of his experience to recover and took a three-point advantage into the mid-game break of the second game.
After the restart, Srikanth upped his pace and comfortably wrapped up the second game by a 21-14 margin, consequently winning the match in straight games.
"It was close until 11 in both games," Srikanth said afterwards. "I'm just happy that I could continue that form throughout the match. I had to be alert to get back his shots."
Srikanth had earlier beaten England’s Toby Penty to set up the second round clash against Ho-Shue.
Lakshya Sen squanders lead to crash out of Denmark Open
Srikanth’s compatriot Lakshya Sen, however, failed to earn a spot in the final eight after going down to Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus 21-15, 7-21, 17-21 in his second round fixture.
In what turned out to be an intriguing start to the contest, the two players went toe-to-toe, trading smashes, drop shots and long rallies before the first mid-game break of the match was signaled with Vittinghus leading by a solitary point.
The trend continued after the restart with both players fighting tooth and nail for every point. At 15-15, however, Sen upped the ante and picked up six consecutive points to settle the first game 21-15.
In the second game, the Dane turned the contest on its head and won it 21-7 to force a decider.
With the momentum firmly in his favour, Vittinghus continued pushing Sen on the backfoot in the third game and built up a 7-1 lead. To his credit, Lakshya didn’t let his shoulders drop under the pressure, and continued to work hard.
The 19-year-old managed to reduce the deficit to just two going into the mid-game break. With fatigue of the long match setting in, both players started making mistakes and the home stretch turned out to be a battle of attrition.
It was Vittinghus, however, who came out on top in the deciding game by a 21-17 scoreline.
"I started well, but then I made a lot of mistakes," Lakshya Sen summed up his match. "I was making mistakes on the first or second stroke and lost control, and gave away a big lead in the second game."