Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth continued his stunning run at the IOSS by conquering World No.1 Son Wan Ho of South Korea and reach the final of the badminton tournament on Saturday. Srikanth beat the South Korean top seed 21-15, 14-21, 24-22 in the semi-final and will now face Japan’s Kazusma Sakai for title on Sunday.
Sakai had defeated the other Indian in the fray World No.25 HS Prannoy in the first semi-final to reach the summit clash.
Prannoy, who had shocked Olympic silver-medallist Lee Chong Wei and gold-medallist Chen Long in the last two days, got to the match point five times but he could not convert to eventually go down 21-17, 26-28, 18-21 in a 77-minute men’s singles match. The World No.25, who had lost to the same opponent during the 2013 edition, mostly matched Sakai stroke for stroke but failed to complete the rallies.
Srikanth had a 2-4 head-to-head record against Son, having lost to the Korean four times in the last four meetings but all that didn’t matter in the semi-final as he survived a battle of attrition at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC). World No. 22 Srikanth will next face World No. 47 Sakai in the finals on Sunday.
This is the fourth Super Series final for Srikanth, who had reached the summit clash in Singapore in April and won the 2014 China Open and the 2015 India Open
