Srikanth enters final, eyes first title since 2017

Lucknow: Former domain No.1 Kidambi Srikanth, who claimed the ag medal at the 2021 domain Championships, has been unity of the to the highest degree popular shuttlers at the Syed Modi India International here since its conversion into a Super 300 event on the BWF World Tour in 2018.

Srikanth won here in 2016 after losing to his current coach and then India No.1, Parupalli Kashyap in the final in 2015. He is waiting for his second crown here since.

He took another step to ending the long wait on Saturday, making the final of the $240,000 event, defeating compatriot Mithun Manjunath in a three-game thriller at the Uttar Pradesh Badminton Academy before a sizable crowd.

In a tense 59-minute men’s singles semi-final, world No.38 Srikanth, despite losing the second game to young Manjunath, showed excellent control over his serve and flicks to win 21-15, 19-21, 21-13.

Currently ranked 95 in the world, Karnataka shuttler Manjunath, a silver medallist at the 2023 Asian Games in team championships, tried to challenge Srikanth in the second game with powerful smashes but in the decider he was no match for Srikanth, who in front of fans clearly backing him, showed his vintage touch.

“Manjunath always comes up with some special plan against me and I appreciate his tactics. Drift was there in the second game and at some level, it was beyond control,” said Srikanth, who beat the compatriot for the first time in three outings.

But he said that the good start had made things easy for him in the decider.

“I always wanted to have a good start and it was there. And once I got it right, I went on exploiting it till the end,” said Srikanth, adding, “for sure, I am here to win my second title.”

Srikanth will play Hong Kong’s Jason Gunawan, who beat Japan’s Minoru Koga 12-21, 21-8, 11-0 when the latter conceded due to an injury, for his first title since 2017 when he won the French Open. The Indian has a 2-0 unbeaten record against Gunawan.

Other Indians in the fray, top seeded duo and defending champions Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand continued their winning streak, brushing aside the Malaysian pair of Ong Shin Yee and Carmen Ting 21-11, 21-15 in the women’s doubles semi-finals.

But Tanvi Sharma and Unnati Hooda, India’s hopes in women’s singles, failed to cross the semi-final hurdle. Tanvi went down fighting to Japan’s Hina Akechi 17-21, 16-21 while Unnati was brushed aside by Turkey’s Neslihan Arin 15-21, 10-21.

Tanvi, who had a stunning win over former world champion Nozomi Okuhara in the quarter-final, came from behind to win six points and level the score at 6-6. She also managed to restore parity at 16-all but thereafter found it tough to handle her Japanese rival, who claimed five consecutive points to finish off in style.

“I committed a number of unforced errors today in both the games. I am happy that I could make it to the semi-finals of the Super 300 event,” said Tanvi. Tanvi said she still needed to work hard on her game for Super 500 and 700 events. “Every event teaches me about my shortcomings. I will be working hard on my game further to give better results in the bigger events like Super 500 and 700,” she said.

Sharad Deep is a versatile sports journalist, who loves writing on cricket and Olympic sport. He has played cricket at the university level and has been writing for Hindustan Times since 1997. Read Less ...Read More

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