© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
It was calm sailing for India’s former World Championship silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth as he made the semis of the Super 300 Canada Open winning 21-18, 21-9 against Chou Tien Chen on Friday night at Ontario.
The win against the top seed – with the Taiwanese losing to an Indian a second time in two weeks after going doen to Ayush Shetty at Iowa last week – sees Srikanth extend his Malaysia Masters run and wonderful strokeplay continue on another continent. Srikanth had missed out last week, but will be keen on picking a title his first this season.
It’s been sustained good quality badminton from Srikanth after a long time, and he seems to be enjoying this near no-pressure phase of his career, while still playing that ethereal game of a Top Tenner.
However that dazzle will run into the determination of Japanese Kenta Nishimoto on Saturday. Srikanth, 32, leads the head to heads 6-4 against the 30-year-old. Srikanth had beaten the Japanese, who tends to be prickly for several other Indians in straight sets at the last World Championship but the stubborn runner is never easy and has been consistent this season.
Seeded third here, Nishimoto is the first Japanese roadblock ahead for Srikanth finally winning a title after several seasons of a dignified struggle with form and fitness. His game though has remained brilliantly engaging and watchable in a sea of defensive slugfests.
But up ahead, if Srikanth gets past Nishimoto, there’s potentially Kodai Naraoka, top seed, against whom he’s 0-4, a four-score to settle.
Nishimoto prevailed over a fighting Sankar Muthusamy Subramaniam, winning 21-15, 5-21, 21-17.
In women’s singles, Shriyanshi Valishetty, another talented teenager from India, went down in a proper battle to Danish 24-year-old Amalie Schulz, 21-12, 19-21-19-21.
Shriyanshi had late fightbacks in both second and third sets but never actually led after picking tge first. She did well to cover a 9-17 deficit in the decider to cone up to 19-20, but couldn’t turn the knife in the endgame, finishing a good North American swing.
