Ninth seed Kidambi Srikanth gave the Indians some cheer on the Independence Day with a straight sets win over fifth seed Jan O Jorgensen to enter the quarter-finals of the men's singles at the Rio Olympics
Srikanth reacts after beating Denmark's O Jorgensen at the Rio Centro Stadium yesterday. Pic/AFP
Rio de Janeiro: Ninth seed Kidambi Srikanth gave the Indians some cheer on the Independence Day with a straight sets win over fifth seed Jan O Jorgensen to enter the quarter-finals of the men's singles at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Srikanth reacts after beating Denmark's O Jorgensen at the Rio Centro Stadium yesterday. Pic/AFP
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Srikanth won 21-19, 21-19 and that puts him against two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan of China. Lin Dan, a legend in the sport, has two Olympic gold medals besides having won five World titles and six All England titles.
PV Sindhu will play her Round of 16 knock out match, later in the evening. She meets Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.
Srikanth, who won both his Group matches with ease to make the knock-out, had a close match, but he managed to pull away on big points and showed some excellent form.
"The idea was to keep it simple and not give away easy points and to kill the shuttle as early as possible," said the smiling Srikanth. Coming into this match the lanky Dane had a 2-1 record against the Indian, but now it is even. "Now we are 2-2," he added with a smile.
"We knew he is a dangerous and good player, so the plan was to play safe, tight and not give away chances."
He added, "It was a close match and it was important to win those crucial points. Like at 16-all or 17-all, that when those couple of points matter. As for reeling points after trailing, that happens often and it is important to fight and get back into the game."
Srikanth will now run into Lin Dan, who he beat in November 2014 in the China Open finals. "That was almost two years ago. But it is always great to play against him. He is one of my idols and a great player. To play against him in the quarter finals of the Olympic Games is like a dream. But having said that, once we get to the court, we are always trying to beat each other and that's what we will try when we face each other next."
Srikanth, who trains with Gopichand, was euphoric but quickly kept his emotions in check and hugged his coach at the end of the match. In the first game, Srikanth and Jorgensen were neck and neck for a good part. Srikanth did open up a narrow edge at 11-9 and then maintained it till 19-17 and then an angled smash gave him match points. He went on win the first game at 21-19.
In the second, Srikanth led 8-4 before Jorgensen won six points in a row to move ahead. But Srikanth found the lines and got back into the mix. Jorgensen again lead 17-14 and again Srikanth clawed his way back to 17-17.
He got two match points at 20-18 and after Jorgensen saved one, Srikanth closed the match with a smash on next to set up a meeting with his idol and one of the greats of the game, Lin Dan.
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