SPORT-OLY-LD IND 2 LAST

Sakshi lost her quarterfinal bout 2-9 and is virtually Sakshi lost her quarterfinal bout 2-9 and is virtuallyout of the fray. Earlier, she came back strongly from 0-4 down to post animpressive 5-4 win over her Swedish opponent — JohannaMattsson — to advance to the pre-quarterfinals and then ekedout a narrow 5-5 win over Mariana Cherdivara Esanu of Republicof Moldova to enter quarters. When the day began, the focus, after Sindhu’s entry intothe semi finals late last night, was on Srikanth againstfive-time world champion Dan whom he had beaten two years agoin the China Open final. A former World No. 3, Srikanth seemed nervous early onand was totally outclassed in the lop-sided opening game whichlasted just 16 minutes. There was a visible change in Srikanth’s demeanour in thesecond game as he raced to a 6-3 lead. His strokes got betteras he caught the celebrated Chinese off guard a few times withhis angled returns and held a six-point advantage at theinterval that proved decisive when he captured the game toforce the match into the decider. In the decider, six-time All England champion Lin Danopened up a slender 2-0 lead but Srikanth managed to narrow itdown to 3-4 before a superb rally ended with the Chinesestamping his authority to lead 5-3. Srikanth continued to stretch his more celebrated rival,who has won the All-England crown on six occasions, till theend but the superior experience of Dan saw him sail through tothe semis against top seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, whodefeated Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 21-9 21-15 inanother quarterfinal. PTI TAP SSR CMSSR