Srikanth slays Lin Dan to reach Denmark Open quarters

Odense (Denmark): Kidambi Srikanth defeated the legendary Lin Dan for the second time in his career to set up an all-Indian quarterfinal against Sameer Verma at the Denmark Open here. 

World number six Srikanth bounced back to beat the world number 14 from China 18-21, 21-17, 21-16 in the second round clash played on Thursday night.

Dan, a two-time Olympic gold medallist and five-time world champion, is not the player he used to be but is still a force to reckon with. It was the fifth meeting between Srikanth and Dan and the Chinese great won the last time they played, in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Srikanth had famously scored his maiden win over Dan to win the 2014 China Open. 

After a tough match against the Chinese, Srikanth will have to play fellow Indian Verma in the quarterfinals to be held later on Friday.

World number 23 Verma had beaten 2018 Asian Games gold medallist, Jonathan Christie of Indonesia, in his second round match. 

Saina Nehwal will also play her women’s singles quarterfinal against eighth seed Nozomi Okuhara later on Friday and so will the women’s doubles pairing of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy, who take on top seeds Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota of Japan.