Rio de Janeiro: World No. 11 Kidambi Srikanth overcame some stiff resistance in the second game from lower ranked Mexican rival Lino Munoz before winning his Group ‘H’ clash in straight games in men’s badminton singles at the Olympic Games here.
Later in the day, the experienced Indian pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa were eliminated from the women’s doubles event after losing their second successive group ‘A’ clash.
In a rollercoaster match against the Dutch team of Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek, Jwala and Ashwini went down 16-21, 21-16, 17-21 in a 48-minute clash.
Lying second from bottom in the group standings, Jwala and Ashwini will have just pride to play for when they take on Puttita Supajirakul and Sapsiree Taeratt-anachai of Indonesia in their final group clash.
Srikanth, the only Indian male shuttler in fray in singles, got past world No. 85 Munoz 21-11, 21-17 in 41 minutes to give a perfect ending to the sixth day of competitions.
After taking the opening game comfortably, the cushion of a 16-9 lead proving handy, Srikanth was given a tough fight in the second as he had to rally from behind on quite a few occasions before using his better court craft and experience to see him through.
Srikanth led 6-2 but the Mexican drew level and then led 8-6 before the Indian fought back to restore parity. Srikanth was 11-9 ahead at the break but a series of poor returns of serve saw the Indian down 11-12.
Things were neck to neck from this point till 13-all before Munoz again went up to 16-13 with the help of some weak mid-court clears by the Indian that were ‘killed’ without much ado by the Mexican.
Srikanth again caught up at 16, fell behind 16-17 through another weak mid-court clear, but finally brought his game back on track to level the scores at 17 with a superb smash to the forehand side of his rival. From then on the technical superiority of the Indian shuttler came to the fore.
