Defending Champion India faces Thailand in their Thomas Cup Opener.
While the Thomas Cup is the world badminton team championship for men, the Uber Cup is the women’s version. Both championships are held simultaneously biannually.
India’s Kidambi Srikanth defeated World No. 3 and second seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark in a hard-fought three-game encounter to enter the men’s singles semi-final of the Swiss Open here at St. Jakobshalle.
The world championship silver medallist Srikanth started off well and took an early lead of 9-1 in the opening game but Antonsen fought back valiantly to win 10 points on trot as both the players went into the opening game break with Danish player leading 11-9.
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Post break the Guntur-born shuttler won three points trot to once again take a lead after a see-saw battle the Indian finally took the opening game 21-19 and go one game up. In the second game, the Indian too started off in a similar fashion taking an early lead of 9-6.
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Srikanth went into the break with an 11-9 lead. After the break both the shuttlers fought brilliantly and were levelled at 19-19 but Anders Antonsen won two consecutive times to win the second game 21-19 to make it one game apiece.
In the third and deciding game it was World No.3 player from Denmark who took an early 4-1 lead but the former World No.1 Srikanth won three consecutive points to make it 4-4. At 7-7, Antonsen won six consecutive points to take a big lead of 13-7 but Srikanth was not willing to give up without a fight as he too won six points on the trot to make it 13-13. At 15-15, Srikanth won three consecutive points to take an 18-15 lead but the Denmark shuttler fought his way back to take a match point at 20-19 but the World Championship silver medallist Srikanth held his nerve to win the third and final game 22-20.
With a 21-19 19-21 22-20 win in a quarter-final match that lasted for one hour and 19 minutes seventh seed Kidambi Srikanth will now face World No.8 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia for a place in the final.
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