Singapore Open: Indian challenge ends as Srikanth goes down fighting

Singapore: India’s rising shuttler Kidambi Srikanth went down in the men’s singles semi-finals but not before giving a tough fight to Malaysian World No.1 Lee Chong Wei at the $300,000 Singapore Open Super Series here Saturday. Despite putting up a strong showing against the top seed, the World No.25 Indian went down 19-21, 18-21 in 42 minutes at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. With the triumph, two-time Olympic silver medallist Lee has taken a 2-0 lead in career meetings over Srikanth. [caption id=“attachment_1477511” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of Kidambi Srikanth. AFP[/caption] The Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold winner started the last match of the day in superb fashion. It was neck-and-neck affair as Srikanth gave a tough fight to the Malaysian in the first game. From 15-16 down, Srikanth used his brilliant smashes to good effect to take a 19-16 lead. Almost on the verge of bagging the game, nerves got the better of Srikanth as he made a series of unforced errors to let go of the game. Lee made sure the bird remained in play while Srikanth, trying to finish the game as fast as possible, committed four consecutive errors to give the game away. In the second game, Lee, who won the India Open last week, opened up a big gap of 15-8 which he extended to 19-12. But Srikanth came out with a late burst of smashes which caught the two-time World Championship silver medallist off guard as the Indian clinched six of the next seven points. But Lee came up with a perfect bodyline smash as he gave no room to the unseeded Indian and proceeded to the final where he will take on Indonesian Simon Santoso. The No.1 has an impressive 9-1 head-to-head against Santoso. The Indian challenge came to an end in the tournament with Srikanth’s loss. IANS