Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 31
When in form, Victor Axelsen is a treat to watch. Despite being a big unit, the 6’3 tall Dane from Odense is quite agile at net play, besides being a powerful smasher.
Axelsen, who is on a comeback trail after recovering from a foot injury last year, was in full flow as he beat home favourite Kidambi Srikanth 21-7 22-20 to win the men’s singles final on Sunday of the India Open.
Axelsen needed only 12 minutes to wrap up the opening game. Srikanth started the match with a clear-cut strategy of combining net play with keeping the shuttle away from Axelsen’s hitting zone in the midcourt. The plan only worked initially as once Axelsen started to dominate the rallies, the unforced errors started to mount from Srikanth’s racquet. Srikanth was also troubled with the drift due to the airflow from the air-conditioning unit.
Easy start
Axelsen won 12 straight points to win the first game. The second game was a close affair as Srikanth, aided with the drift in his favour, ran the Dane very close. Despite conceding three straight points after the break, Srikanth kept himself in the fight as he tried to take the match into the decider. He even went to lead the game at 14-13, when Axelsen’s return smash missed the tram-line. Fuelled by the clarion call of ‘Srikanth Srikanth’ from the partisan home crowd, India’s No. 1 singles player looked like a beast. His jump smashes and deft net play had the Dane under a lot of stress.
Srikanth led 20-18 but it all went downhill from there as Axelsen took the next four points to close out the match for his second India Open title in three years.
“I think wherever we are playing a tournament there is always one side which might be little bit more comfortable to play on and today was the same thing,” Axelsen said after his win. “I think it was little bit easier to control first the side I started on. And in the second Srikanth stepped up and played few attacking shots. That’s how it is.”
“We were close, it could have gone either way and it is the small things that can make the difference. You never know what could have happened if Srikanth had won the second game,” he added.
Srikanth conceded that he gave away far too many points, putting himself under pressure.
RESULTS
Men’s singles: V Axelsen bt K Srikanth 7-21 20-22
Men’s doubles: LYang/W Chi-Lin bt R Karandasuwardi/A Pratama 21-14 21-14
Women’s singles: R Intanon bt H Bingjiao 21-15 21-14
Women’s doubles: G Polii/A Rahayu bt CM Kuan/LM Yean 21-11 25-23
Mixed doubles: W Yilyu/H Dongping bt P Jordan/MD Oktavianti 21-13 21-11
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2COCBfc
via Today’s News Headlines
No comments: