Indonesia SSP: Kidambi Srikanth dishes out gritty performance to stun Son Wan Ho and storm into final

Jakarta: Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth dished out a gritty performance to stun world No 1 Korean Son Wan Ho to reach the finals of the $1,000,000 Indonesia Super Series Premier at Jakarta on Saturday. [caption id="" align=“alignleft” width=“380”] India’s Kidambi Srikanth reacts after defeating South Korea’s Son Wan Ho during their men’s singles semi final match at Indonesia Open. AP[/caption] The 24-year-old from Guntur fought like a man possessed to outclass Son 21-15 18-21 24-22 in an energy-sapping men’s singles match that lasted an hour and 12 minutes here. Srikanth had a 2-4 head-to-head record against Son, having lost to the Korean four times in the last four meetings but all that didn’t matter today as he survived a battle of attrition at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC). World No 22 Srikanth will next face Japanese qualifier Kazumasa Sakai in the final on Sunday. This is the fourth Super Series final for Srikanth, who had reached the summit clash in Singapore in April and won the 2014 China Open and 2015 India Open. Earlier, giant-killer HS Prannoy played his heart out but eventually ran out of steam against Japanese Kazumasa Sakai to go down narrowly in the other semifinal. The World No 25, who had shocked Olympic silver- medallist Lee Chong Wei and gold-medallist Chen Long in the last two days, got to the match point five times but he could not convert to eventually go down 21-17, 26-28, 18-21 in a 77 -minute men’s singles match.