Mumbai: Rio Olympics quarter-finalist Kidambi Srikanth came out as the only Indian at the Japan Open. He reached the last eight stage of the men’s singles competition at the Super Series event on Thursday.
However, the win was not that happening for Srikanth. He was faced against compatriot Ajay Jayaram who unfortunately needed to stop midway after the 28-year-old Mumbai-based shuttler injured his left ankle. His pull out was at the opening of the game, which went in favour of Srikanth 21-16.
Upon his injury, Jayaram told PTI, “I injured by left ankle but it doesn’t look serious so hopefully with proper rest for a few days, I should be ready for Korea Open.”
Well, it wasn’t a good day for Jayaram on field , and so for H S Prannoy at office. He went down fighting 16-21 19-21 against second seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in a 44-minute battle. as he went down fighting 16-21 19-21 against second seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in a 44-minute battle.TheEighth seeded Indian will next face Germany’s Marc Zwiebler. Srikanth has a 2-1 record against the German, who defeated the Indian during the 2014 edition of the same tournament.
Undoubtedly, Srikanth is the promising face for the tournament. His last victory in breathtaking match against another compatriot P Kashyap was remarkable. One would remember that Srikanth, had also faced Kashyap in the 2015 edition of same tournament in the second round where Kashyap had emerged victorious, but this time the side of the coin was flipped back by Srikanth.
Srikanth is currently the highest ranked Indian men’s player in the international circuit with a world ranking of 11 as of August 11, 2016.He won 2014 China Open Super Series Premier after beating Lin Dan by 21–19 21–17 in the final round, thus becoming the first Indian to win a Super Series Premier Men’s title. He trains at the Gopichand Badminton Academy, Hyderabad and is supported by the GoSports Foundation, Bangalore.He is also sponsored by Li-Ning.