Srikanth whips Nishimoto to win French Open

Kidambi Srikanth is only the fourth men's singles player to win four or more Super Series titles in a calendar year.

Kidambi Srikanth continued his dream run on the badminton circuit with another title on Sunday.

The Indian ace routed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan 21-14, 21-13 in the final to win the French Open and pick his fourth Super Series title this season.

It is his second successive Super Series crown, having won the Denmark Open last week.

Earlier this year, the 25-year-old from Guntur, who had won the China Open Super Series Premier in 2014 and 2015 India Open Super Series, triumphed at the Indonesia Super Series Premier and Australia Super Series.

Sunday’s French Open triumph made Srikanth only the fourth men's singles player to win four or more Super Series titles in a calendar year.

Going by his current form, the final was expected to be one-sided, and it lived up to that!

Nishimoto started well and raced to a 9-5 lead before Srikanth drew abreast at 9-9. Thereafter, however, it was the Japanese who was at the receiving end as the Indian tossed and dropped the shuttle with perfection to establish a 14-10 lead.

Nishimoto did well to cut the deficit to 15-14, but Srikanth reeled off six straight points to take the first game.

The second was simply one-sided as the Indian won five straight points to take a commanding 10-2 lead.

Nishimoto reduced the margin to 13-8, but the Indian showed why he’s now a name to reckon with on the circuit to complete formalities in 34 minutes.

Tai Tzu Ying of Taipei won the women’s singles crown, beating Japan's Akene Yamaguch 21-4, 21-16.