<p>India's Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the quarterfinals of the men's singles badminton event after ekeing out a hard-fought win over World No. 5 Jan Jorgensen of Denmark at the Rio Olympics here today.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Coming into the match with a 1-2 head-to-head record, Srikanth dished out an aggressive performance to defeat Jorgensen 21-19 21-19 in a 42-minute battle to keep himself in contention.<br /><br />He thus joined Parupalli Kashyap, who was the first Indian men's singles player to reach the quarterfinals of the Olympics at London Games in 2012.<br /><br />The 23-year-old Guntur lad, ranked 11th in the world, will next take on two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan tomorrow.<br /><br />In a battle between equals, Jorgensen moved to a 3-1 lead before Srikanth turned the tables reaching 4-3. The duo engaged in a fierce battle of supremacy and moved neck and neck before Srikanth managed to enter the break with a 11-9 advantage.<br /><br />Srikanth opened up a narrow 17-14 lead at one stage. His sharp returns earned him a lot of points even as the Dane kept breathing down his neck with some angled strokes which the Indian found difficult to negotiate.<br /><br />At 18-17, an aggressive rally ended with Srikanth placing the shuttle away from Jorgensen but he hit long next before moving into the game point with a cross court smash, which Jorgensen could not reach.<br /><br />Jorgensen saved one when Srikanth made a bad judgement and left the shuttle. However, he sealed it next with another powerful cross court smash.<br /><br />Srikanth carried on the momentum into the second game and dictated the tempo of the fast-paced rallies to reach 8-4 at one stage. The Indian, however, lost a few points with his backhand returns going to the net.<br /><br />The Denmark shuttler also came up with some spectacular smashes and some brilliant net play to make it 10-9. At the break, Srikanth managed a 11-10 lead after a precise return, which landed just inside the line.<br /><br />Jorgensen grabbed a few points to make it 13-13 before making Srikanth run across the court with his angled returns to lead 15-13.<br /><br />Jorgensen soon started dominating by changing the pace of the rallies too frequently and producing some sharp returns to trouble the Indian and reached 17-14.<br /><br />But Srikanth soon clawed back with three points before the duo moved to 18-18. The Indian won a parallel rally with Jorgensen going to net and then Srikanth produced a sharp smash to reach the match point. He left the shuttle once again at the baseline before coming up with another smash to seal his place in the quarterfinals. <br /></p>
<p>India's Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the quarterfinals of the men's singles badminton event after ekeing out a hard-fought win over World No. 5 Jan Jorgensen of Denmark at the Rio Olympics here today.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Coming into the match with a 1-2 head-to-head record, Srikanth dished out an aggressive performance to defeat Jorgensen 21-19 21-19 in a 42-minute battle to keep himself in contention.<br /><br />He thus joined Parupalli Kashyap, who was the first Indian men's singles player to reach the quarterfinals of the Olympics at London Games in 2012.<br /><br />The 23-year-old Guntur lad, ranked 11th in the world, will next take on two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan tomorrow.<br /><br />In a battle between equals, Jorgensen moved to a 3-1 lead before Srikanth turned the tables reaching 4-3. The duo engaged in a fierce battle of supremacy and moved neck and neck before Srikanth managed to enter the break with a 11-9 advantage.<br /><br />Srikanth opened up a narrow 17-14 lead at one stage. His sharp returns earned him a lot of points even as the Dane kept breathing down his neck with some angled strokes which the Indian found difficult to negotiate.<br /><br />At 18-17, an aggressive rally ended with Srikanth placing the shuttle away from Jorgensen but he hit long next before moving into the game point with a cross court smash, which Jorgensen could not reach.<br /><br />Jorgensen saved one when Srikanth made a bad judgement and left the shuttle. However, he sealed it next with another powerful cross court smash.<br /><br />Srikanth carried on the momentum into the second game and dictated the tempo of the fast-paced rallies to reach 8-4 at one stage. The Indian, however, lost a few points with his backhand returns going to the net.<br /><br />The Denmark shuttler also came up with some spectacular smashes and some brilliant net play to make it 10-9. At the break, Srikanth managed a 11-10 lead after a precise return, which landed just inside the line.<br /><br />Jorgensen grabbed a few points to make it 13-13 before making Srikanth run across the court with his angled returns to lead 15-13.<br /><br />Jorgensen soon started dominating by changing the pace of the rallies too frequently and producing some sharp returns to trouble the Indian and reached 17-14.<br /><br />But Srikanth soon clawed back with three points before the duo moved to 18-18. The Indian won a parallel rally with Jorgensen going to net and then Srikanth produced a sharp smash to reach the match point. He left the shuttle once again at the baseline before coming up with another smash to seal his place in the quarterfinals. <br /></p>