What's the story?
It's never easy to play one's academy mate and training partner since both know each other inside out. It was evident in Sunday's Singapore Open Superseries final which was the first time that two Indians contested for the title in any Superseries tournament.
Sai Praneeth beat Srikanth Kidambi to clinch his maiden Superseries crown but not before surviving a first-game deficit for a 17-21, 21-17, 21-12 victory in 55 minutes. They are both mentored by the coach extraordinaire, Pullela Gopichand at his academy in Hyderabad and they played as recently as January where Sai had to claw his way back from a game down to beat the former World No. 3.
Three months on, it was very much a repeat of that tight battle they had in Lucknow.
After achieving the most glorious moment of his career, the 24-year-old Sai admitted in his court-side interview that it was indeed an onerous task facing the Guntur-born ace.
"It's always difficult to play a player who you know well. We know each other's games inside out and I am very happy with this win,” said the 2010 World Junior Championships bronze medallist.
In case you didn't know...
With this win, Sai Praneeth becomes just the fourth Indian to triumph at the Superseries level and the second men’s singles player to do so. He thus joins Saina Nehwal (10 titles), PV Sindhu and Srikanth Kidambi (2 titles each).
The heart of the matter
Srikanth started the match in fine form as Sai took some time to cool his nerves and settle into the final. In the face of the Srikanth onslaught, he trailed 7-11 and then 9-14.
Sai, however, did manage to come back briefly and made it just a one-point gap when he trailed 14-15 but soon enough his highly accomplished compatriot accelerated to pocket the opener, 21-17.
Even in the second game, Srikanth had a healthy lead of 6-1 before the match surprisingly turned. With some deft touches at the net, Sai levelled matters at 7-7 and then brought out his array of crosscourt overheads to leave Srikanth clueless and very much exhausted. The game was even till 14-14 from where Sai took control of the proceedings and surged to 16-14 as the match slowly slipped from the former China Open champion’s grip.
The decider mostly belonged to the 30th ranked Sai, who pretty much looked unstoppable and kept on unleashing his variety of strokes. He raced ahead to 10-3 and Srikanth’s game, in contrast, completely collapsed. The closest the latter could get to was when he trailed by six points at 12-18. Sai quickly shut out any chances of a Srikanth comeback by taking the next three points to complete the win.
What's next?
The Indian shuttlers will next be seen in action at the Badminton Asia Championships to be held in Wuhan, China from April 25-30.
Author's take
This historic all-India final is the perfect indicator of how far Indian badminton has come. That men’s singles now has improved consistency and depth have been validated by this weeklong performance at the Singapore Open.
