Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth made it a perfect day for Indian shuttlers at the Denmark Superseries Premier Badminton tournament on Thursday as they overcame long delays due to lighting issues to join giant killer HS Prannoy in the quarterfinals.
Srikanth got the better of Korea’s Jeon Hyeok Jin 21-13, 8-21, 21-18 to reach the men’s singles quarterfinals while Nehwal defeated Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol 22-20 21-13 to advance in women’s singles.
Earlier, Prannoy had set the ball rolling with an upset win over former world number one Lee Chong Wei at the start of the evening session in Odense but issues with lights on the court delayed the entire schedule thereafter.
Srikanth was particularly affected the most as his match against Jeon was halted for almost 45 minutes after one point of the third game was played due to lack of proper lights on Court 3. But to his credit, the world number eight Indian kept his cool and saw off a late surge from his opponent to reach the last eight.
The four-time Superseries champion looked like he would sail through the decider when he opened up a 18-10 lead. But Jin wasn’t willing to give up and closed the gap to just one point at 19-18.
Srikanth then used his trademark jump smash to earn a match point would have probably heaved a sigh of relief once Jin hit the shuttle in the net to clear his path to the quarterfinals.
He will now face world champion and local favourite Viktor Axelsen, who needed three match points and an hour and two minutes to get the better of qualifier Wei Nan 21-17, 10-21, 21-23.
Nehwal, who was scheduled to play next, had to however wait a lot longer to begin her second round as the organisers then decided to shift all the matches from Court 3 to Court 1 and 2.
The delay probably resulted in the world championship bronze medallist taking some time to get going as Jindapol stretched her in the opening game. But Nehwal was on a roll in the second and needed just 42 minutes to set up a quarterfinal clash against fourth seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan.
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