Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth produced a scintillating performance to defeat reigning Olympic and World champion Chen Long of China in the Men's Singles final to lift his second successive Supersies title at Australian Open
The two players had met five times before the Australian Open final with the Chinese shuttler triumphing all five times.
The win also guarantees Srikanth a prize money of approx $56,250 after he took just 46 minutes to beat the former World No.1 22-20, 21-16 at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre with relative ease.
The opening game of the encounter was more competitive as compared to the second, with Srikanth coming out on top after the game was tied 20-20.
However, the World No. 11 took 11-9 lead at the short break in Game 2 before completely dominating the second half and taking an incredible 21-16 win to wrap-up the contest.
This is the 24-year-old's first victory in six outings against the Chinese, whom he failed to defeat in the previous 5 encounters. That does speak a lot about the improvement the shuttler from Hyderabad has done in the recent times.
With this victory, the Guntur-born lad has now clinched two back-to-back Superseries titles after defeating Japan's Kazumasa Sakai 21-11, 21-19 at the Indonesia Open. This was also Srikanth'sthird consecutive Superseries final.
As a reward to Srikanth's accomplishment, Badminton Association of India (BAI) president Himanta Biswa Sarma announced Rs. 5 lakh cash reward for the shuttler.
We are really proud of the victory of @srikidambi in the Australian Open. I congratulate him for yet another wonderful win.
Congratulations @srikidambi on beating reigning Olympic & World Champion Chen Long & winning a 4th Superseries title. Take a bow, Srikanth !
Congrats @srikidambi for a stunning victory in #AustralianSS! Proud moment for India! May you have many more victories ahead!
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