Srikanth storms into the final

Indian shuttler enters the final of the Australian Open after defeating Chinese Shi Yuqi in straight games .

forced to struggle hard before scripting a 26-24, 15-21, 21-17 victory over his 14th ranked Korean rival in an hour and eight minutes.

Chen enjoys a 5-0 advantage against Srikanth in the head to head record and the Indian will have to be at the top of his game during Sunday’s final in order to have a chance of clinching the title.

Placed 11th in the world rankings, Srikanth dominated his fourth ranked rival right from the start, opening up a 6-4 lead in the opening stages of the first game.

The Indian continued to hold the upper hand, building on his lead to go into the break with a healthy 11-7 advantage.

He blew off the Chinese shuttler after the break, taking four consecutive points to lead 16-9 before another burst of five back to back points saw him take the opening game.

Shi put up more of a fight in the early stages of the second game. The two shuttlers battled neck and neck till 7-7 before a threepoint burst saw the Indian take the lead at 10-7.

Another streak of five points saw Srikanth at a commanding 15-8 advantage. The Indian never looked back from there as he sealed a comfortable victory.

In the women’s singles category, Akane Yamaguchi of Japan beat Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei 2119, 21-12 to reach her first Australia Open Superseries final.

She will face fellow Japanese Nozomi Okuhara in the final. Okuhara defeated sixth seeded Chinese Sun Yu 21-18, 18-21, 21-14 in the other semi-final.

In the Womens’s doubles, Denmark’s Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen beat the Japanese pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota 21-16 22-20 2118 to reach the final.

The Danish pair will meet the top seeded Japanese pair of Misaki Matsutumo and Ayaka Taka- hashi for the title.

Matsutumo and Takahashi overpowered the fourth seeded Chinese pair of Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan 21-17, 21-11 in the semi-finals.

In men’s doubles, third seeds Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda of Japan will face the Indonesian-Malaysian combination of Hendra Setiawan and Boon Heong Tan in the final.

The Japanese duo defeated the Chinese Taipei team of Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han 21-15, 21-15 in the semi-finals.

In the other men’s doubles semifinal, Hendra and Boon had a much tougher time against the Chinese pair of Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan before prevailing 2115, 14-21, 21-17 in 58 minutes.

In mixed doubles, the seventh seeded Indonesian pair of Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto will meets top seeds Zheng Siwei and Chen Qingchen of China in the final. IANS