Kidambi Srikanth demolished world and Olympic champion Chen Long 22-20, 21-17 to win the Australian Superseries title in Sydney on Sunday.
This was Srikanth’s second successive Superseries title and fourth overall and the icing on the cake for the 24-year-old would be that the victory on Sunday came against a player he had lost to five times in the past.
Chen Long is a kind of player who thrives on prying on the patience of his opponent and it was clear even before the start of the match that the Indian would need a game plan that would allow him to not just control the pace of the match but also control his nerves when things aren’t going according to the plan.
To his credit, Srikanth executed the plan to perfection in the 46 minute of the encounter as he resorted to push Chen on the back-foot with his attacking tosses and exemplary net game. The booming jump smashes did the job as well when it was time for the kill.
Srikanth, who became the first Indian to play in three consecutive Superseries finals, started a bit slowly in the opening game and a service error on the opening point was probably just nerves settling down. But once the rallies began to get longer, Srikanth also got back his mojo and it was evident that Chen’s defensive skills were summoned too often to stay in the game.
The only time, the world No 11 Indian looked under pressure in the match was when Chen took four consecutive points to take 19-17 lead with Srikanth guilty of making a couple of unforced errors. But the eventual champion came up with two cross court winners to gain his first game point. He failed to convert the first one but closed the game on the second opportunity to win a game against Chen for only the second time in six encounters.
Srikanth’s maturity was evident with the way he started the second game. He was willing to just play the shuttle around to deny his Chinese opponent the opportunity to implement his game plan. Every time he managed to push his 6 feet 3 inch tall opponent to the backhand court, the sliced cross court smash found the winner.
The title was eventually sealed with Chen first making a service error and then hitting the return of serve long on the match point to kick off a frenzied celebration in the Indian camp.
The victory also means that Indian men’s singles players have now won three of the last six Superseries titles.
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