Odense: The 24-year-old Kidambi Srikanth of India has given his stunningly flawless thrashing of Lee Hyun-il of Korea in the Denmark Open final, needed only 25 minutes to lift his third Super Series title of the year on Sunday.
Srikanth who shocked World No. 1 Viktor Axelsen in the quarter-finals, then defeated Vincent Wong Wing Ki of Hong Kong on Saturday, blew away 37-year-old Korean veteran Lee Hyun-il 21-10, 21-5.
“I was expecting a tougher match. I know Lee is known to coming back after losing the first set. That’s why I still maintained my tempo in the second set. Fortunately, my attacking was going perfectly, I am really happy with the victory,” said Srikanth.
Despite beating Chen Long in the first round, and No. 1 seed Son Wan-Ho in the semi-final, Lee couldn’t catch up with Srikanth’s speed in the final, and was having trouble returning Srikanth’s strong cross court smashes and smashes that were aimed at his back hand.
In men’s doubles, No. 5 seeds Liu Cheng/Zhang Nan of China finally able to win their first ever Superseries title at the Denmark Open in addition to the World Championships trophy they’ve won in Scotland two months ago.
Liu/Zhang came to the final with a 0-2 career meeting record against No. 2 seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia. The match was dragged on to a nail biting finish where the Chinese pair came back from 9-12 in the decider to gain revenge for their previous 2 defeats by outlasted Gideon/Sukamuljo 21-16, 22-24, 21-19 in 63 minutes.
After the tournament, Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo have announced that they will withdraw from next week’s French Open Superseries due to a right should injury sustain by Marcus Fernaldi Gideon during the Denmark Open semi-finals against compatriots Angga Pratama/Ricky Karanda Suwardi. The pain in his right shoulder made him not able to unleash his maximum power on the smashes during the final.
