Srikanth loses to Axelsen in first round of India Open

new Delhi: Former World Championships medallist Kidambi Srikanth fought hard but could not stop the juggernaut of Olympic and world champion Viktor Axelsen in the opening round of the India Open 2023 at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, here on Wednesday.

The World No. 14 Indian relied on his atacking instinct and played his trademark jump smashes to gain points. But Axelsen managed to stand strong when under pressure to win the match 21-14, 21-19 to register his seventh straight victory over his Indian opponent. In the day’s other matches, second seed Lee Zii Jia and Denmark’s Anders Antonsen were taken to the distance by their relatively unknown opponents while a visibly tired Kodai Naraoka of Japan fizzled out in three games against third seed Loh Kean Yew of Singapore.

Antonsen came from a game down to beat France’s Toma Junior Popov 18-21, 21-19, 21-13 before Lee was made to work hard for a 20-22, 21-19, 21-12 win by Indonesia’s Shesar Hiren Rhustavito before Srikanth and Axelsen took the court.

Meanwhile, other Indians in action Aakarshi Kashyap and Malvika Bansod also ended on the losing side against their higher ranked opponents. While Kashyap suffered a 15-21, 12-21 loss against the former champion Beiwen Zhang of USA, Malvika Bansod lost to defending champion Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand 17-21, 12-21.

World No. 1 Axelsen was the favourite going into the first round encounter, having won 10 out of the 14 tournaments he has played in the last 12 months including the Malaysian Open last week and he showed his composure and temperament in the opening game by keeping the shutle in play and waiting for his opponent’ s mistakes to draw first blood.

S rik an th, however, wasn’ t willing to give up without a fight and when he opened up a 14-5 lead in the second game it looked like the Indian could win his first game against the Danish on the 14th atempt.

But Axelsen remained unfazed by the score line and stuck to his game plan, only changing the speed of the rallies to put pressure on his opponent. He also dug deep into his defence at 14-8 to win a long rally and bagged seven straight points to bounce back in the game.

Things were neck and neck there ate rand ax el sen delivered the knockout punch with a cross dribble on the net while following up on a cross court smash. He will now face China’s Shi Yu Qi in the second round of the tournament, part of the BWF World Tour Super 750 event.