Kidambi Srikanth put a courageous fight to push World No 3 Lin Dan all the way to the deciding game but gave away silly points at the death to lose in the quarterfinals.
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Five-time world champion Dan edged World No.11 Srikanth 21-6, 11-21, 21-18.
In the semi-finals, Dan will face his long-time rival and Malaysian veteran Lee Chong Wei, who crushed Chinese Taipei’s Tou Tien Chen in a dominating 21-9, 21-15 victory. In the second game, Srikanth put in a much better performance as Lin made plenty of errors at the net.
With this win, the 32-year-old Chinese legend took a 3-1 head-to-head lead against the 23-year-old Indian shuttler. The Chinese netted one return but his disguised net shot caught Srikanth offcourt.
There was a visible change in Srikanth’s demeanour in the second game as he raced to a 6-3 lead. Srikanth played to Lin Dan’s strengths and kept on smashing, only to find the shuttlecock coming back every time. The Chinese again hit long as Srikanth led 17-9.
At 9-8, Srikanth took the lead after Lin Dan flicked one out of the court, and went into the break with a three-point lead after a jump smash beat the full-length dive of the World No.3. In the end, it was two unforced errors that gifted the game to the Chinese. The Super Dan found the net on umpteen number of times and gave the Indian the advantage at the break with the scores at 11-5 in favour of Srikanth.
Srikanth continued to stretch his more experienced rival and drew parity at 6-6 when Lin failed to lift a shot at the net. The set was Srikanth’s to lose and even the Chinese shuttler knew that.
Srikanth saved one match point when Lin Dan’s return fell outside the court but the Chinese sealed the issue by pushing the shuttle to the back-court. The Indian played some extraordinary strokes to bamboozle the Chinese. Lin Dan managed draw level at 13 when Srikanth missed the baseline by a whisker after being troubled by the drift. The champion continued to pick up points here and there, and another wayward smash gave the two-time defending a 19-17 lead.
Soon, Srikanth managed to break the momentum and went into the mid-game break 11-8 after turning it around in the last few points.
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He came back strongly and won the second set 21-11 but lost the match in 3rd set by 21-18.
