K. Srikanth struggled past Spain’s Pablo Abian in three games to enter the third round of the BWF World Championships here on Wednesday.
The fifth-seeded Indian recovered from a slump during the hard-fought contest to see off Pablo 21-15, 12-21, 21-14 in a second-round match in 62 minutes.
Srikanth, who had clinched four titles last year, will lock horns with Malaysia’s Liew Daren, a former World No. 10, who had won the 2012 French Open Super Series.
Going ahead
Srikanth erased a 2-4 and 6-8 deficit in the opening game before gaining the upper hand with a 16-13 lead. He then reeled off four points to reach game points. Pablo tried to recover, but the Indian quickly pocketed the opening game.
In the second, Srikanth had opened up a 6-3 lead but Pablo rode on a six-point burst to move ahead.
The Indian made it 10-12 but the Spaniard registered seven straight points to enjoy a healthy lead to eventually roar back into contest.
In the decider, Pablo managed a slender 11-9 advantage at the break, but Srikanth turned the tables and then surged ahead to shut the door on the Spaniard.
Later in the day, Sindhu did not encounter too many problems, registering a 21-14, 21-9 victory over Indonesia’s Fitriani Fitriani
The only period of the match when Fitriani managed to match Sindhu was during the early stages of the opening game. But Sindhu took charge after the break, taking six consecutive points to build up a comfortable lead which she never relinquished. She completely dominated the second game, scoring almost at will to simply blow away the Indonesian’s challenge.
The results:
Men: K. Srikanth bt Pablo Abian (Esp) 21-15, 12-21, 21-14; Ygor Coelho bt H.S. Prannoy 21-8, 21-16, 21-15; B. Sai Praneeth bt Luis Enrique Penalaver (Esp) 21-8, 21-11; Lin Dan (Chn) bt Sameer Verma 21-17, 21-14.
Doubles: Kim Astrup & Anders Skaarup Rasmussen (Den) bt R. Satwiksairaj & Chirag Shetty 21-18, 15-21, 21-16; Takuto Inoue & Yuki Kaneko (Jpn) bt Manu Attri & Sumeeth Reddy 22-24, 21-13, 21-16.
Women: P.V. Sindhu bt Fitriani Fitriani (Ina) 21-14, 21-9. Doubles: Yuki Fukushima & Sayaka Hirota (Jpn) bt Ashwini Ponnappa & Sikki Reddy 21-14, 21-15.