India’s Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the men’s singles second round with a stunning win over Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen but HS Prannoy fell short to make an early exit from French Open Super 750 badminton tournament, here on Wednesday.
The world No 24 Srikanth, who is racing against time to qualify for the Paris Olympics, outwitted 14th-ranked Chen 21-15, 20-22, 21-8 in a 66-minute opening round clash for his third win over the Taiwanese shuttler in seven meetings.
In the next round, the 2021 world championships silver medallist Srikanth will fight it out against China’s world No 17 Lu Guang Zu, who ended the campaign of India’s HS Prannoy with a fine 21-17, 21-17 win at the adjacent court at the Arena Porte de la Chapelle here.
Srikanth was by far the better player as he roared back from 5-7 behind, winning 14 off the next 17 points to earn the bragging rights.
However, Chen produced a rearguard in the second game and managed to keep his nose ahead in time to take the match to the decider after a gruelling battle of nerves.
After the change of sides, Srikanth was back in his element as from 7-5, the Indian pocketed nine straight points to leave Chen far behind. The Taiwanese managed three points before the Indian banged the door on his face with the remaining five points.
In the adjacent court, Prannoy seemed on the road to glory only to falter in the end as Guang Zu stole the show.
