Macau: 18-year-old Indonesian Jonatan Christie stunned top seed Kidambi Srikanth with a straight-game victory in the first round of the USD 120,000 Macau Open Grand Prix Gold on Tuesday.
The world No. 40 Christie got off to a good start in the first set, jumping to 5-1, and 11-5 before Srikanth shrugged off his shakiness to tie the game at 14-14. Christie was able to stay steady fending off Srikanth’s late comeback by winning the first set 21-16.
Christie found his rhythm quickly and raced to a 7-1 lead in the second set, but the Indonesian’s inexperience showed as he was unable to capitalize on the massive lead, allowing Srikanth to claw his way back before Christie managed to hold off Srikanth by taking the second set 23-21.
“Srikanth suddenly changed his tactics and was playing more aggressively in the second set. I was not able to adjust to his game because I was still playing like how I played at the start of the second set. Nevertheless, I have to admit that Srikanth seemed not in his best form, and made a lot of unforce errors,” said Christie.
“I was able to make some difficult shots today, and was able to catch him off guard several times,” added Christie.
Christie will play Cheng Kuo Po of Taiwan on Wednesday.
