Hong Kong Open: Srikanth wins, sets up date with Chen Long

Young Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth continued his rampaging run in Kowloon and set up a semifinal clash with top seed Chinese Chen Long at the Hong Kong Super Series.

After India's campaign in the women's singles came to an end following Saina Nehwal's shocking loss to Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals, Srikanth brought back cheers to the home camp with a 21-14, 21-15 win over Hong Kong's Wei Nan in the men's singles event. 

Newly-crowned China Open champion, Saina, seeded third, went down 15-21, 19-21 to World No. 9 Ying in just 39 minutes. 

However, Srikanth, who had become the first Indian to win a Super Series Premier event at Fuzhou last week, had no difficulty in seeing off World No. 21 Wei in a 36-minute quarterfinal match. 

Srikanth held a 10-6 lead early in the opening game but Wei caught up with him with a four-point burst. However, all credit to the Indian that he didn't allow his rival to come near him after that and closed the game in her favour. 

In the second game too, Srikanth surged ahead at 8-3 and held his fort as Wei crumbled. 

Image: India's Kidambi Srikanth

Photograph: Reuters