Kuala Lumpur: Anup Sridhar caused the biggest upset of the tournement by shocking reigning Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia 21-14, 24-26, 22-20 in a thrilling men's singles second round match of the 16th World Badminton Championship on Wednesday.
Sridhar, who has had a fruitful season so far with semi-final appearances at the German Open in March and the Asian Championships in April, prevailed over the eighth seeded Indonesian in an absorbing one hour and 13-minute contest.
The Indian, ranked 41 in the world, was far superior in the first game winning 10 points from smashes to Hidayat's four though Indonesian had more net winners.
Shaken by the jolt, Hidayat, the 2005 champion, came back firing but needed six game points before finally clinching the second game in duece.
World No. 10 Hidayat looked to be in control at 18-13 in the decider but from here the Indian did the unthinkable with some luck.
Two net cords in favour of Sridhar levelled the score at 19-19 and when Hidayat smashed long on the next point, the writing was on the wall.
Bravely, Hidayat managed to save one match point but succumbed at the next to become the tournament's biggest casualty so far.
Overall, both have same number of 21 smash winners and 10 net winners. Sridhar came out winner in rallies, winning 67 to 60 by Hidayat.
"It's the biggest win in my career so far and I'm happy it came in a big event like the world championships," Sridhar told reporters after the match.
Sridhar will now meet the winner of 13th seeded Malaysian Mohd. Hafiz Hashim and Scott Evans of Ireland in the pre-quarter finals.
Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal stormed into pre-quarters in women's singles with a straight set victory over 13th seeded Juliana Schenk of Germany.
The Indian took just 29 minutes to dump the higher seeded opponent 21-16, 21-10 in the second round match.
Saina will now meet fourth seeded Frenchwoman Pi Hongyan for a place in the last eight.
In the men's doubles, Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas lost to 14th seeded Indonesian pair of Hendra Gunawan and Joko Riyadi 13-21, 14-21 in just 26 minutes.
Comments
0 comment