Denmark Open: Kidambi Srikanth keeps Indian flame burning; Saina Nehwal, HS Prannoy out

Courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: A few days back, Danish coach Kenneth Jonassen hailed Kidmabi Srikanth as one of the toughest players to beat. Well on Friday, the Indian shuttler proved the 43-year-old Danish legend's words true by beating reigning world champion Viktor Axelsen in front of the partisan Odense crowd.

Interestingly, Axelsen is Jonassen's protege, besides being the home favourite. The men's singles quarterfinal match at Denmark Open Superseries Premier lasted 55 minutes, with the Indian shuttler winning in three games.

The 27-year-old India, who himself is one of the rising superstars, lost the first game first game 14-21 with the more celebrated Dane playing a dominant game.

But the Indian shuttler fought back to take the second game 22-20 and forced a decider.

In the decider, spurred by a 12 point consecutive wins, Kidambi made a mockery of home support to win the game 21-7.

This is his third win over Axelsen, and first in two years. Srikanth had lost the last three previous meetings in straight games at World Superseries Finals in 2015, India Open and Japan Open — both early this year.

He will take on the winner of the match between world number five Tien Chen Chou of Taiwan and Wing Ki Vincent Wong of Hong Kong.

However, it proved to be a bad Friday for other Indian shuttlers as both Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy lost their respective quarter-final matches.

Saina, who had won the Denmark Open way back in 2012, lost to Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in straight games. The 27-year-old Indian matched her Japanese opponent early in the match but, succumbed to a 10-21, 13-21 defeat in just 29 minutes. With it, Indian campaign in the women's singles event also came to an end.

The defending champion and fourth-seeded Yamaguchi will face China's Chen Yufei, who defeated India's PV Sindhu in the first round.

HS Prannoy also crashed out in the last-eight stage, after losing to top seed Son Wan-Ho of South Korea in straight games. The Indian shuttler did try to fight back after losing the first game rather tamely, but the Korean was too strong.

Prannoy, who defeated world number one Wan Ho Son of South Korea in the previous round, lost 13-21, 18-21 44 minutes.