India’s campaign in the Hong Kong Super Series came to an end after young shuttler Kidambi Srikanth suffered a three-game loss to top seed Chen long of China in the semifinals of the men’s singles event of the $350,000 event, here on Saturday.
Srikanth, who broke into the top 10 on Thursday following his historic win at China Open Super Series Premier, went down 17-21 21-19 6-21 to world champion Chen in a match that lasted over an hour in Kowloon. Srikanth had lost to Chen at the BWF World Championships in August but the Indian played a better game today to clinch the second game before losing steam in the decider.
In the opening game, Chen zoomed to a 10-3 lead early on and Srikanth was left to do the catching up job. He narrowed it down to a point’s lead at 16-17. Srikanth lost a few points at the net as Chen moved to the game point with a mid court smash and soon pocketed the opening game when Srikanth hit the nets again.
In the second game, Srikanth struggled with the length early on and missed a few points hitting out as Chen led 4-0. Srikanth clawed back at 8-8 with the help of a smash and then moved ahead when Chen found the net.
Though Chen clinched the lead again with some brilliant net play, Srikanth managed to enter the interval 11-10 ahead. The rallies continued after the break as both preyed on each other’s mistakes. Srikanth played some attacking shots to extend the lead to 14-11.
Srikanth was calm even in the difficult positions and played an intelligent game to slowly carve out a 17-13 lead. The experienced Chinese kept breathing down his neck but the Indian wriggled out of some tricky situations to lead 18-16.
Chen erased the deficit but two erratic shots from him took Srikanth to 20-19 and the Indian grabbed the opportunity to bounce back in the contest when Chen hit long. In the decider, Chen unleashed his power-packed smashes and anticipated the shots better to dominate the rallies and lead 11-4 at the interval.