It wasn’t the most challenging scenario Srikanth Kidambi has found himself in over the course of his long badminton career, but in the second round of Canda Open Super 300 in Ontario on Thursday against Wang Po-wei, he found himself trailing by a solid margin in both games. In the first game, when he trailed 5-11 at the interval, Priyanshu Rajawat strode onto the court with purpose. The 23-year-old, who had faced Srikanth 24 hours earlier on this very court at Markham Pan Am Center and had lost in three entertaining games, was now on coaching duties, along with former India doubles player Manu Attri. Priyanshu, usually reserved in his media interactions, had plenty to say in the brief break. And Srikanth listened intently to his younger teammate (who he trains with in Hyderabad). Whatever Priyanshu said, must have had an impact on the former World No 1 as he tightened up his game.
From 5-11 at the interval, Srikanth started to slowly close the gap, then went on a spree of six straight points from 13-18 down to take the lead, and eventually closed the match out 21-19, 21-14 in 41 minutes to enter the Canada Open quarterfinals. This is Srikanth’s third quarterfinal appearance of the year, and second in three tournaments, after he turned around his form at Malaysia Masters a month ago by reaching the final.
Even in Game 2, Srikanth was off to a slow start, trailing 1-6. But once more, he put together a 7-point streak to retake the lead. There was to be another run of points late on in the match, this time from 10-13 down – just as Wang was starting to harbour hopes of a fightback after the mid-game interval – Srikanth put together his best streak of nine consecutive points.
It was the most defining pattern of Srikanth’s win, as he showed both his tendency to make frustrating errors but also the grit to dig in, fight it out in defensive rallies to win points when not dominating exchanges. The errors, however, would need to come down if he faces Chou Tien Chen next (the top seed plays later in the day and is expected to come through). The Chinese Taipei veteran is one of the hardest working shuttlers on tour and can frustrated the most steady rally-style players on the circuit on his day. The world No 6 leads 9-3 in the Head-to-Head against Srikanth.
Shriyanshi goes through
Up against Malaysia’s new women’s singles No 1 Letshanaa Karupathevan, world No 75 Shriyanshi Valishetty produced a solid all-round showing to win 21-15, 21-14 in just 35 minutes. The teenager has been making a good impression in flashes, her power game a standout feature for someone her age. On Thursday, she showed a bit more of the deft side to her gameplay as she got the better of the world No 45. In the first-round, the 18-year-old had gotten the better of Polina Burhova 21-18, 22-20 in 40 minutes.
Later in the day, Sankar Subramanian – who prevailed against US Open champion Ayush Shetty in a battle of junior World Championships medallists – will be in men’s singles round of 16 action.
