Kidambi Srikanth, India's star shuttler, continued his march at the Canada Open Super 300 badminton tournament as he stunned the top seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei to advance into the semifinals of the tournament. Srikanth defeated the World No.6 in straight games in a 43-minute quarterfinal clash on Friday night.
Srikanth, the former world championships silver medallist, who had finished runner-up at the Malaysia Masters earlier this year, outclassed world No. 6 Chen 21-18, 21-9. The Indian shuttler Srikanth ranked 46 in the world, will next take on Japan’s third seed Kenta Nishimoto for a place in the final.
Srikanth got off to a flying start, quickly establishing a 5-0 lead in the first game and maintaining a slight edge as the first game reached 16-all. Although Chen mounted a brief comeback to go up 17-16, Srikanth responded with a clinical burst, winning five of the next six points to close out the game.
In the second game, the two shuttlers were tied at 4-4 before the Indian shuttler pulled away to take an 11-6 lead at the mid-game interval. He maintained his grip on the match, extending the advantage to 19-7 before comfortably wrapping up the contest.
Earlier in the day, S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, the 2022 World Junior Championships silver medallist, put up a spirited fight before going down to Nishimoto 15-21, 21-5, 17-21 in a marathon 79-minute quarterfinal.
In women’s singles, Shriyanshi Valishetty’s promising run ended with a defeat to Denmark’s Amalie Schulz.
Srikanth, came into the match with a 4-6 head-to-head record against Chen but had won their previous two encounters. With this victory, Srikanth remains the only Indian left in contention at the event. Srikanth will now face Japan's third seed Kenta Nishimoto for a place in the final.