New Delhi: It was curtains for both Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy as they exited from the Japan Open in Tokyo, suffering a loss in their respective quarter-final matches. Srikanth, seeded eighth at the tournament, went down 17-21 17-21 in a tough match against Viktor Axelsen. Then for the unseeded HS Prannoy, there was a 15-21 14-21 loss to Shi Yuqi.
But Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold champions Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy kept India's flag fluttering, defeating Korea's Seung Jae Seo and Kim Ha Na 21-18 9-21 21-19 to set up a clash with Japan's Takuro Hoki and Sayaka Hirota in the next round.
Coming back to Srikanth’s match, which was the biggest from the Indian point of view on Friday, the 25-year-old from Guntur, who clinched back-to-back titles at Indonesia and Australia, couldn't curb his simple errors to go down to world number two and third seed Axelsen in a men's singles quarterfinal contest that lasted 40 minutes.
With this victory, Axelsen enjoys a 3-2 head-to-head lead over Srikanth in five meetings, having won the last three duels. Srikanth made too many errors and squandered 16-13 and 9-6 advantages in the first and second games respectively.
Axelsen, on the other hand, showed great agility and used his smashes to good use to outwit the Indian. (With PTI inputs)
