Jakarta: Kidambi Srikanth was at his grittiest best as he shocked World No. 1 Son Wan Ho 21-15, 18-21, 24-22 for a place in the final of the Indonesian Super Series Premier badminton tournament here Saturday.
However an all Indian final did not happen as HS Prannoy’s campaign ended at the hands of Japanese Kazumasa Sakai 21-17, 26-28, 18-21 in a 77-minute men’s singles match.
Srikanth fought like a man possessed to outclass Korean Ho in an energy-sapping men’s singles match that lasted 72 minutes. Srikanth had a 2-4 head-to-head record against Son, having lost to the Korean four times in the last four meetings but all that didn’t matter on the day.
Precision was the key as Srikanth and Son battled on, playing some excruciating rallies during the three-game thriller. Srikanth produced a compact net game and used his smashes to good effect against Son, who looked equally menacing with his never-say-die-attitude.
In the first game, Srikanth led 11-6 at the break. He kept his composure to win the game easily.
In the second game, Srikanth opened up a 4-2 lead before moving to 8-5 but Son managed to come back at 9-9 and he grabbed a slender 11-10 lead at interval. Srikanth made it 13-all, but Son, with some telling bodyline smashes managed an 18-14 lead. Even though, Srikanth narrowed the deficit down to 18-20, Son managed to win the game on a lucky net cord.
The decider turned out to be an edge-of-the-seat thriller as the duo battled tooth and nail right from the start, moving from 6-6 to 10-10. With Srikanth hitting out, Son grabbed a 11-10 lead at the break.
Son moved to a 13-10 lead after the interval but Srikanth slowly levelled par at 14-14 with a clever shot on Son’s forehand. The duo moved neck-and-neck till 19-19. Son had a match point at 20-19, but hit wide.
Then it became 22-21 in favour of the Indian. However, Srikanth wasted his first match point with his smash hitting the net. However, he was not to be denied. Srikanth got his second match point with a cross-court smash and then wrapped it up by flicking a return past an onrushing Son.
Prannoy, on the other hand, will have himself to blame for his semifinal loss. After winning the first game, he had four chances to close out the tie in the second, but wasted all of them. Sakai, on the other hand hit a beautiful drop at 27-26 to win the game.
In the third game, Sakai moved to a 6-4 lead early on and held on to the lead all through the game to emerge winner.
