Three in a row: Shuttler Srikanth storms into Australian Open final

Sydney, June 24

Ace shuttler Kidambi Srikanth’s dream season just got better as the India made it to his third successive Super Series final beating Yuqi Shi 21-10 21-14 at the Australian Open here on Saturday.

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Srikanth won the match in merely 27 minutes. Srikanth has previously reached the final of the Singapore Open and Indonesia Open. He was runner-up at Singapore, while he won at the Indonesia Series.

His previous best was a semi-final appearance in 2016.

Srikanth got better of qualifier Kan Chao Yu followed by World No. 1 Son Wan Ho and Praneeth respectively. He will face the winner of the match between China’s Chen Long and Korea’s Lee Hyun Il in the final.

Saina, Sindhu bow out

However, there was disappointment in store for India in the women’s singles quarters as Rio Olympics silver-medallist PV Sindhu and defending champion Saina Nehwal squandered opportunities galore to go down in their thrilling three-game matches.

Sindhu failed to get the better of world No.1 and top seed Tai Tzu Ying of the Chinese Taipei for the seventh time in her career, while Saina fought for an hour and 19 minutes before losing to last year’s finalist Sun Yu.

Sindhu squandered a game’s advantage to go down 21-10 20 -22 16-21 in a contest that lasted exactly an hour, while Saina went down 17-21 21-10 17-21.  PTI