Saarbrucken: India’s Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the semi-finals of Hylo Open Super 300 here as he outclassed world no. 7 Jonatan Christie in the men’s singles quarterfinals.
The 29-year-old Kidambi Srikanth made a strong start against the seventh-ranked Indonesian by scoring nine of the last 11 points to win the first game. Jonatan Christie, the 2018 Asian Games champion, made a late surge in the second game but the Indian shuttler managed to seal the match 21-13, 21-19 in 39 minutes.
Kidambi Srikanth will be up against fifth-seeded Anthony Ginting of Indonesia in the semi-finals.
Earlier, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand beat Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Ya Ching and Lin Wan Ching in the women’s doubles quarter-finals.
After two close games, the Chinese Taipei team were unable to maintain the pressure in the decider as Jolly and Gopichand, 28th in the badminton rankings, won 21-17, 18-21, 21-8.
The Commonwealth Games 2022 bronze medal-winning Indian pair are set to face eighth-seeded Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard of Thailand on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the in-form Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, currently world No. 8, lost their men’s doubles quarter-final match against England’s seventh-seeded pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy. The Indian badminton duo went down 21-17, 21-14 and crashed out of the tournament.
In the women’s singles, world No. 39 Malvika Bansod, who stunned Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour in the pre-quarterfinals, lost to 21st-ranked Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia 21-17, 21-10 in the final eight in 33 minutes.
