Spirited Srikanth goes down to Chen in Hong Kong Open semi-final

Hong Kong, Nov 22: India's Kidambi Srikanth showed great fighting spirit before going down to world number 2 Chen Long of China in the Hong Kong Open badminton semi-finals here today.

Srikanth stretched the world champion and lost in a gruelling three-game battle in the men's singles. The 21-year-old from Hyderabad bowed out 17-21, 21-19, 6-21 to the Chinese player at the Hong Kong Coliseum in Kowloon on Saturday.

The semi-final match, which lasted 64 minutes, saw Srikanth fighting hard against the top seed. After losing the opening game, he bounced back in the second but could not sustain the same challenge in the third and deciding game. Chen used all his experience to emerge triumphant in the decider as he sailed past the Indian in a convincing fashion.

This was Chen and Srikanth's 2nd meeting. The Chinese the won the previous contest too but that was in straight games at the World Championships in August this year. Then, Chen had won 21-12, 21-10.

The world number 10 Srikanth had won his maiden China Open title last Sunday (November 16) by beating two-time Olympic gold medallist Lin Dan. He has again impressed here.

With Srikanth's exit today, Indian challenge ended. Earlier, Saina Nehwal had crashed out in the quarter-finals yesterday. She too had won the China Open last week.

Match Statistics