Srikanth stuns Chen in Aussie Open final
SYDNEY: India’s Srikanth Kidambi claimed a first victory over Olympic and two-time world champion Chen Long to win the Australian Open Superseries final in Sydney yesterday.
The 11th-ranked Srikanth outgunned the sixth-ranked Chinese star 22-20, 21-16 in 46 minutes for his second successive Superseries title after winning the Indonesia Open earlier this month.
It was Srikanth’s first win in six encounters with the Rio Olympic champion with Chen defeating the Indian at the Sudirman Cup on Australia’s Gold Coast last month.
Indians have now won four of the six Superseries this year.
The 24-year-old Srikanth is in careerbest form after returning from injury in April.
He made it to the Singapore Open final and won the Indonesia Open ahead of the Australian event.
Chen is on a comeback trail from a lengthy injury and has not won a Superseries title since the 2014 Denmark Open.
Japanese players took home three titles after they won the women’s singles, women’s doubles and men’s doubles finals.
Olympic bronze medallist Nozomi Okuhara downed third seed Akane Yamaguchi 21-12, 21-23, 21-17 in an all-Japanese women’s final. It was Okuhara’s fourth Superseries title. Top seeds Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi of Japan clinched the women’s doubles crown after beating Denmark’s Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen 21-10, 21-13, while No.3 seeds Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda of Japan made it three out of three for Japan when they beat Indonesia’s Hendra Setiawan and Malaysia’s Tan Boon Heong 21-17, 21-19 in the men’s doubles decider.
The mixed doubles honour went to China’s Zheng Siwei and Chen Qingchen after the top seeds rallied to beat seventh seeds Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto of Indonesia 18-21, 21-14, 21-17.