Top Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth advanced into the pre-quarters of the USD one million China Open World Tour Super 1000 tournament in Changzhou on Wednesday.
Srikanth defeated Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in the opening round of men’s singles event beating the Dane 21-9, 21-19 in straight sets to complete the win in just 30 minutes.
The 25-year-old started well and comfortably took a five-point lead before sealing the opening set victory at 21-9.
The second game, however, was a highly contested affair with Gemke matching Srikanth point on point. The Indian looked hurried into c-ompleting the match but Gemke showed enough fight to sustain the battle, Srikanth took a four point lead initially, but Gemke from standing at 2-4, won four straight trot to make the scoreline read 6-4 in his favour. He continued with the lead, before Dravid came back to advance to the next period.
Both the players were locked at 19-19 at one stage but from there Srikanth snatched two consecutive smashes to seal in his favour and win the match.
A day earlier, Indian shuttler PV Sindhu had edged past Saena Kawakami of Japan 21-15, 21-13 in their first-round clash of the tournament.