In a battle of the young and the old, 21-year-old Priyanshu Rajawat trounced 30-year-old Kidambi Srikanth 21-13, 21-8 to set up an enticing semifinal against HS Prannoy in the Australian Open BWF Super-500 tournament in Sydney. Prannoy ousted top seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia 16-21, 21-17, 21-14 in the quarterfinals on Friday.
All the three shuttlers --Srikanth, Priyanshu and Prannoy -train with Pullela Gopichand. Priyanshu joined the Gopichand Academy in Madhya Pradesh as an eight-year-old.
PV Sindhu crashed out, losing 12-21, 17-21 to Beiwen Zhang.
It will be Priyanshu's first semifinal in a Super-500 tournament. The youngster needed just 30 minutes to get past Srikanth. Hitting crosscourt smash winners with ease and finding gaps, Priyanshu did not allow Srikanth to settle down. Srikanth found it difficult to move well as Priyanshu peppered him with an array of smashes. Priyanshu went into the break up 11-6 and made it 13-7 before Srikanth reduced it to 11-13.
Priyanshu continued his aggressive approach and moved ahead to 16-12 before clinching the game. He was more sharp in the second game as he took at 11-3 lead and widened it to 18-6, leaving no chance for Srikanth to make a comeback. Prannoy dominated the Indonesian in the second and third games.
Gopichand, who was by Prannoy's side, said, "Prannoy has been consistent against top players. The manner he controlled the game and came back, I am very happy for him."
