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Kidambi Srikanth’s Solo Act at the Malaysian Open

By: Edior
Date: 05 Apr, 2019
Image Courtesy: AFP
Day 4 of the Celcom Axiata Malaysia Open 2019 will feature over 60 players in action in the quarter-finals action but only one of them will be wearing the tricolor on his sleeve – Kidambi Srikanth. He will have a tough encounter on hand, as he squares off against fourth seeded Chinese opponent Chen Long. 

Sirkanth will be third on Axiata Arena – 1, following the singles match-up between Tai Tzu Ying & Ratchanok Intanon and a women’s doubles encounter. And will need all his reserves to overcome Chen Long, in what promises to be one of the highlight encounters of the day.

Kidambi Srikanth had a relatively easy second round outing as he put aside his Thai opponent Khosit Phetpradab 21-11 21-15. He made a confident start in the first game and consistently stayed ahead of his opponent. He barely broke sweat as he took the game, 21-11 before being challenged a little harder in the second game. But Srikanth had enough in the tank to snuff out any challenge to take the game and the match.

Chen Long, meanwhile, was pushed a little further in the first game by Kantaphon Wangcharoen. But the Chinese fourth seed, hardly gave any chance to the Thai challenger in the second game, closing out the match 22-20 21-13.

In other men’s quarter-final action – sixth seed Viktor Axelsen plays giant-killer Jonatan Christie – who defeated top seed Kento Momota. In the bottom half of the draw, Lin Dan takes on unseeded Japanese opponent Kanta Tsuneymaya; while second seeded Shi Yuqi will look to progress to the semi-finals against Kenta Nishimoto.

In the women’s singles action, all the top four seeds are in the quarter-finals and it will be interesting to see if all four can make it to the semi-finals. He Bingjao v Nozomi Okuhara looks like the pick of the action from the women’s quarter-finals.

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