Kidambi Srikanth becomes the first Indian to win Swiss Open Grand Prix Championship
Indian shuttler, Kidambi Srikanth created history at the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold Championship on Sunday when he became the first Indian to win the tournament in the single’s category. He overcame a strong opposition from Viktor Axelsen of Denmark. The tournament final was a hard fought match, in which Srikanth emerged as the winner.
World no. 4 (Srikanth) defeated Axelsen by 21-15, 12-21,21-14 in an exciting summit clash. Viktor Axelsen also happens to be the defending champion of the tournament and World No 6. The contest between the two lasted for 47 minutes.
Srikanth won the first set
It seemed that the match would be one-sided when Axelsen took a considerable lead, but Srikanth kept his wits about and managed not only to recover, but also managed to take a lead. Srikanth defended Axelsen’s onslaughts without any problems. He managed to keep his nerves and won the set.
Axelsen came back strongly in the second set
The second set again saw Axelsen’s attacking gameplay, and Srikanth’s unforced errors helped Axelsen. Axelsen played a brilliant second set and managed to win it. Whenever Srikanth managed to recover the lead, Axelsen managed to add more. With his brilliant backhand play, Axelsen managed to take the set away from Srikanth.
Srikanth started the third set in an aggressive manner. He had managed to take a three-point lead before Axelsen managed to score the first point of the set. It was a closed fought third set, with both the players going neck to neck till break. After the break, Srikanth played on a different level. He was aggressive and defeated won the third set by 21-14.
The 22-year-old from Andhra Pradesh mixed aggression and sensibility to win the tournament’s final. Srikanth had caused a major upset earlier in 2014 at the China Open Super Series Premier by defeating five-time World Champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, Lin Dan. By defeating Viktor Axelsen, Srikanth, became the first Indian to win the $120,000 tournament.
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