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Former world number one Kidambi Srikanth reached his first final of the year with a hard-fought win over Japan's Yudai Okimoto in the men's semifinals of the US Open Badminton tournament here.
The 33-year-old got the better of fourth seed Okimoto 22-20, 15-21, 21-19 in an hour and 12 minutes in the match on Saturday to set up a summit clash against Chinese Taipei's eighth seed Su Li Yang. Su ended the dream run of India's Rounak Chouhan with a 21-17, 21-19 win in the other semifinals. In the women's singles semifinal, Devika Sihag could not sustain the momentum after winning the opening game against second seed Line Christophersen of Denmark, going down 15-21, 21-11, 21-15. But the day belonged to Srikanth, who kept his nerves in the opening game after Okimoto had fought back from an 11-17 deficit to earn a game point. Srikanth saved the point and won the next two to grab the advantage. The Japanese shuttler, however, forced a decider with a strong showing in the second game. The final game followed a similar script to the first as Srikanth opened up a 10-5 lead, only for Okimoto to draw level at 12-12. Srikanth then grabbed six straight points, 12-13, before conceding five himself to make it 18-18. The Indian then relied on his experience to mix up the pace and wrap up the match. (ANI)
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