Eighth seed Kidambi Srikanth takes on unseeded Wong Wing Ki of Hong Kong in the men's singles semi-final of Denmark Open 2017 on Saturday, October 21 in Odense.
Srikanth heads into the match on the back of a valiant win against world number one and reigning world champion Viktor Axelsen in the quarter-final on Friday. The Indian shuttler came back from a game down to beat the local favourite 14-21, 22-20, 21-7 in a 55-minute draining battle.
After being completely outplayed in the opening game, Srikanth was trailing 17-19 in the second, However, he displayed tremendous grit and concentration to clinch the game, before decimating a despondent Axelsen with ease in the decider.
Confident Srikanth eyes another scalp
After failing in the quarter-final of World Championships and Japan Open earlier this year, Srikanth revealed he was happy to go past the last-eight hurdle in the ongoing tournament. The manner in which he won against one of the most consistent shuttlers in the ongoing season should have given him a lot of confidence to go all the way in Denmark.
"I've been playing well in the last couple of months; unfortunately I lost in the quarter-finals of the World Championships. I lost to Viktor in the quarter-finals of the Japan Open, so I wanted to break the quarter-finals barrier," Srikanth was quoted as saying by BWF's official website.
After not a great start really happy to turn things in 2nd and continue it all the way. Excited to get back on court tomorrow. #believe pic.twitter.com/PVtDHCoM1C
— Kidambi Srikanth (@srikidambi) October 20, 2017
Srikanth has well and truly cleared the biggest hurdle that was standing between him and a fourth Superseries final appearance this season. The Hyderabad shuttler, who was unstoppable once he turned on the attack mode on Friday, will start as favourite against Wong, the world number 15, who had been struggling to be consistent in 2017.
The Hong Kong shuttler though will take confidence from his straight games (22-20, 24-22) win over world number five Chou Tien Chen of China in the quarter-final yesterday. However, after having played his last-eight match late on Friday evening, Wong is likely to find it difficult to match Srikanth's pace.
Wong has managed to beat Srikanth twice in their four career meetings, but it was the Indian who won their recent meeting at Indonesia Open.
When does the match start and how to watch it live
The semi-final between Srikanth and Wong will not start before 2:30pm local time, 6:10pm IST
Live streaming and TV coverage
India: TV: Star Sports 2. Live streaming: Hotstar
Malaysia: TV: Astro Supersport. Live streaming: Astro Go
Singapore: TV: Star Hub. Live streaming: Starhub Go
China: TV: CCTV 5+
Worldwide live streaming: BWF YouTube channel [Not available in India]
Live scores can be followed on BWF's official website.
