India’s Kidambi Srikanth got his Rio 2016 campaign off to a winning start after beating Lino Munoz of Mexico 21-11 21-17 in his opening Group H match on Thursday.
The 23-year-old began the match on a positive note, depending a great deal on his smashes to win his points, taking a 7-5 lead before extending it to 11-7 at the interval mark.After the break, the Indian continued his dominance over proceedings, winning 10 out of the next 14 points to take the opening game very comfortably 21-11.
The second game saw the Mexican put up a much better fight as he matched his higher ranked opponent point for point, and thanks to a few errors from Srikanth, seemed in control of proceedings for a while.
But the tide turned in the Indian’s favour from the 13-16 mark, when he first won 3 points straight before clinching 5 out of the next 7 points to win the set 21-17.
He will next face Henri Hurskainen of Sweden on Sunday. His win also rounds off a great start for the Indian Singles contingent with PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal winning their matches earlier as well.
Friday will see action from the doubles court as both Jwala Gutta/Ashwini Ponnappa and Manu Attri/ Sumeeth Reddy look to get their campaigns back on track.
Final Scoreline: Kidambi Srikanth beat Lino Munoz 21-11 21-17
