Srikanth shocked in close encounter; ends up runner-up in Indonesia Masters
TOP SEED INDIAN SHUTTLER Kidambi Srikanth's winning run in the Indonesia Masters Grand Prix Gold came to an end as he lost in the finals against second seed Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia 21-17, 13-21, 22-24 in Malang, Indonesia on Sunday.
Runners up #Indonesiaopen #gpgold . Thank you everyone for all the support. See u next week in dubai. #spirit #focus pic.twitter.com/pOQZWmacus
— Sri (@srikidambi) December 6, 2015
The match went on for 59 minutes where both the shuttlers were sweating it out to take the title home. At the end of the 59th minute it was the Indonesian who picked the title. From the beginning the world no. 12 was in control of the game but the Indian shuttler did not give away and won the first set.
The second set as expected was not an easy one as the 2014 World Championship bronze medallist knew it was his one chance to get back which he comfortably did and pushed the game to the decider. The final set, pressure on both the players so was the expectation level.
It went down to the wire as the scores were levelled at 21-21, the top seed took a one point lead and then Tommy hit back to make it 22-22 and from then on it was no stopping the second seed to gain two straight points and win it 24-22. Tommy now leads 3-1 in the head-to-head count.
While World No.12 Sugiarto, son of former World Champion Icuk Sugiarto, took home $9,000 for his victory, Srikanth earned $4,560 for his runner-up finish.
Srikanth has been able to regain his old form in this tournament. Lately, he has had one of the worst runs of his international career, having exited five of his last six tournaments in the first round. The only time he did not lose the opener was when he lost the second round at the Denmark Open in October.
This was his fourth final this year after winning two (India Open Superseries and Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold) and losing one (India Grand Prix Gold). Significantly, all three performances came at the start of the year after which the 22-year-old went through a slump.
