Srikanth clinches French Open; lifts fourth title of year

Paris [France], October 29 (ANI): Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth continued his rich vein of form as he defeated Japan's Kenta Nishimoto in straight games to clinch the men's singles French Open Super Series title here on Sunday.

The 23-year-old eased past his Japanese opponent 21-14, 21-13 in a one-sided summit showdown that lasted 35 minutes.

This is Srikanth's fourth Super Series title of the year, after having clinched the Denmark Open Super Series Premier, the Indonesia Open Super Series Premier and Australian Open Super Series earlier in the year.

Now, he has overall six Super Series titles to his name, including China Open 2014 and India Open 2015.

Srikanth dominated the match as he maintained a healthy gap in points throughout the first game.

Despite, Nishimoto taking a big three-point lead, 8-5 at one point of the game, Srikanth made a comeback with his trademark jump-smash to make it 11-9 in a few minutes.

With his mix of attacking and net play, Srikanth was able to take the first game 21-14 against Nishimoto in just 16 minutes.

In the second game, Srikanth continued his aggression as he opened up a huge 7-2 lead early on.

The striking part about Srikanth's game was his movement and picking almost everything with comfortable ease.

Srikanth won the second game by 21-12 to put his opponent out of his misery.

Earlier, Srikanth had reached the finals after sweeping aside compatriot HS Prannoy 14-21, 21-19, 21-18 in the semi-final match which lasted over an hour.

Meanwhile, the Badminton Association of India has announced a cash reward of Rs 5 Lakh for Srikanth for his French Open Super Series win. (ANI)