Dubai: Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu made a fine start to her campaign, but world no. 4 Kidambi Srikanth suffered a straight set defeat against world champion Viktor Axelsen at the USD $1 million Dubai Super Series Finals on Wednesday.
Facing world no. 9 He Bingjiao against whom she had a 4-5 head-to-head record, the Olympics silver medalist brought out her best game to secure a 21-11, 16-21, 21-18 win in a match that lasted an hour and four minutes. Denmark Open champion Srikanth however could not hold anchor against Axelsen, succumbing to a 13-21, 17-21 defeat in his opening Group B match, that lasted just 38 minutes.
The world no. 3 Sindhu, next face Sayaka Sato of Japan, while Srikanth will take on Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen on Thursday.
Facing a familiar opponent in her opening match, the 22-year-old took just 14 minutes to win the opening set 21-11. It seemed to be close match at the start, but Sindhu built on her lead taking it to 10-6 at one point. The Chinese though tried to force a comeback but the gap was huge and Sindhu had no problem in taking the 1-0 lead.
Bingjiao however came back strong in the second set, matching the Indian shot-on-shot. She began with a 4-0 lead, before Sindhu bounced back to make it 7-7. But that did not deter the Chinese who once again parried forward to eventually seal the set 21-16 and take the match to the decider.
Not looking to stop, the world no. 9 rallied to a 5-2 lead early in the third set. But Sindhu with her attacking play clinched the next six points, to make it 11-7 at the break. It was always going to be tough to make a comeback for the Chinese and she eventually couldn’t as Sindhu surfaced to her first win in the competition, sealing the third set 21-18.
The first Indian and fourth overall to win four Super Series titles in a single season, Srikanth however could not match the top ranked Viktor Axelsen going down in just 38 minutes.
Srikanth who had defeated the Dane en route to his Denmark Open title, made too many unforced errors in the entire match handing the world champion an easy 21-13, 21-17 win. The Indian now find himself in a must win situation against Chou Tien-chen of Chinese Taipei in his next match.