Daily Times

SYDNEY: India’s Kidambi Srikanth claimed a first victory over Olympic and two-time world champion Chen Long to win the Australian Open Superseries final in Sydney on Sunday. 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 against the Rio Olympic champion, with Chen defeating the Indian at the Sudirman Cup on Australia’s Gold Coast last month. “I was not thinking of winning or losing. I missed competitive badminton during my break last year and wanted to enjoy the match,” Srikanth said. “These conditions are such that you can’t really attack, it’s a bit slow, you have to be prepared for a long match. “In all the breaks today I had the advantage, (coach) Mulyo told me to keep it going, not to make simple mistakes and allow him back into the match.”

Indians have now won four of the six Superseries this year. Srikanth is in career-best 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 the comeback trail from a long-lasting injury and has not won a Superseries title since the 2014 Denmark Open.

Chen, who had played two long matches before the final, said he was still recovering from gastroenteritis. “As a whole I played very well, but since I arrived in Sydney I have had gastroenteritis and diarrhoea, so I haven’t been at my best physical condition,” he said. “But since I made the final, I wanted to continue to play as well as I could.” Olympic bronze medallist Nozomi Okuhara earlier downed Akane Yamaguchi 21-12, 21-23, 21-17 in an all-Japanese women’s final. Okuhara won her first World Superseries title since the All England last year, displaying the full extent of her indefatigable retrieving style in getting the better of Yamaguchi.

Published in Daily Times, June 26th, 2017.