Srikanth, who is ranked 15, defeated Angus 21-11, 12-21, 21-19 while his compatriot Lakshya Sen beat Singapore's Kunlavut Vitidsarn 21-18 12-21 21-19 to book a place in the semi-finals.
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Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth beat higher ranked Angus Ng Ka-Long to reach the semi-finals of the Hylon Open Super 500 tournament in Germany on Friday. Srikanth showed great determination to get the better of the ninth-ranked shuttler from Hong Kong in a three-set encounter. Srikanth, who is ranked 15, defeated Angus 21-11, 12-21, 21-19. Meanwhile another Indian Lakshya Sen also reached the last four of the tournament after defeating Singapore’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn.
Srikanth won the first game convincingly, cruising to 21-11. However Angus stormed back into the match as he dominated the second game and won it 21-12 to take the game to the decider. The deciding set was a tight affair until Srikanth took a 20-15 lead. The Indian has five match points, but he squandered four of them before finally edging the victory.
The win helped Srikanth to level the head-to-head record against Angus. Both shuttlers now have three wins against each other. Meanwhile Srikanth will take on Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in the semifinals.
Meanwhile Kidambi’s compatriot Lakshya Sen also booked his place in the semi-finals in Germany. The youngster defeated Vitidsarn 21-18 12-21 21-19 in a seesaw battle. Lakshya, the world number 21 came into the match with a 2-3 head-to-head record and battled for an hour and 18 minutes against the world number 24.
Lakshya raced to a 8-3 lead in the first set and went into the break with the score at 11-8. Although the three time junior world champion Vitidsarn tried hard to turn the tables, the Indian comfortably won the first game.
Lakshya also started the second game positively, leading 8-5 but Vitidsarn managed to take a two point lead going into the interval and then secured the second set to take the game to the decider.
The final game was a closely fought affair as both players didn’t allow each other to get away. Initially Lakshya took a 9-6 lead, but then, the Thai shuttler levelled the score at 11-11 and stayed close at 13-14.
Although Lakshya grabbed five match points, Vitidsarn won four back-to-back points to make things difficult for the Indian. However Lakshya kept his cool to pocket the final set and the match.
Lakshya will take on Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew in the last four. Loh defeated fifth seed Rasmus Gemke in the quarters and top seed Chou Tien Chen in the opening round.
