World number 3 Kidambi Srikanth managed to win in a three set thriller against the lower ranked Brice Leverdez of France. The Indian ace faced a setback in the first set loosing it 7-21 against the Frenchman. He made a comeback in next two games and won the match 7-21, 21-14, 22-20 on Wednesday.
Brice totally dominated the first game, where Srikanth tried to play his natural attacking game but his shots were either trapped in net or went wide that added to the frustration.
Srikanth showed some determination in the second game and won it 21-14 to force a decider.
In the third game Srikanth went into the break leading 11-6. However, Leverdez had some other plans as he turned the momentum in his favor to bring it to level terms at 12-12. It was a neck to neck battle after then and the scores were tied at 18 each. The action now shifted to a long rally highly cheered by the audience, which was won by the French shuttler to make it 19-18 in his favour. Srikanth levelled it again but it again turned in favor of Brice who had match point opportunities. Srikanth again got back to level terms and clinched two important points thereafter to take the game and match.
Earlier in the day, India’s Saina Nehwal bowed out of All England Championships 2018 following a first round defeat to defending champion and current world no. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei. This was Saina’s 8th successive defeat to the Taipei’s shuttler. Saina failed to withstand against the stronger opponent and lost in straight games 21-14,21-18. Read full reports: HERE
The Indian women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy also lost their first-round match to the Japanese second seeds Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi.
India’s Meghana Jakkampudi and Poorvisha Ram lost 14-21, 11-21 to fifth seed Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto of Japan in their opening round match.
