Kidambi Srikanth from India was up for quite a challenge as he took on local home court hero Viktor Axelsen in an intense match that ended up sending Axelsen packing his bags.

The two contenders in today’s quarter-final have up until now been the two most winning players when it comes to Superseries- and Superseries premier-tournaments in 2017. With Srikanth winning both Australian Open and Indonesia Open and Axelsen triumphing in Japan Open and the World Championships we were really in for a clash of champions on a roll today.

Previous to the quarter-final, the record between the two was 3-2 in favor of the Dane so Srikanth had a chance to even the score today.

As the loudest cheer yet heard at DANISA DENMARK OPEN presented by VICTOR sounded, the local hero made his entrance, but Skrikant wasn’t scared that easily and exploited his chance of evening the score. A win he obviously was very happy about.

- I’m just very happy. In badminton, it’s all about winning matches, so I’m very happy that I won today. 

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After the first game, it did look like the local hero would make it through to the semifinal as he started out strongly and with a little help from a few Indian mistakes got an early lead which he held on to. Axelsen secured the first game 21-14 leaving the crowd cheering loudly for him.

To the horror of the crowd, the second game got a lot closer than the first. Srikanth had stepped up his game a lot and played really well at this point – and the Dane couldn’t find a way to solve the troubles he had gotten into. With a 22-20 win, Srikanth forced the match into the deciding game.

Here, the horror humming amongst the spectators became reality. Srikanth just kept going and Axelsen almost stopped playing as he only won 7 points in the third game. As Srikanth approached the victory a new kind of cheering was heard in the hall. This time, it sounded: “Let’s go, India, let’s go!”.

- I didn’t hear the Indian cheering because I was really focused at that time of the match so I couldn’t really listen to it, but it’s always great to have some of the crowd cheering your way, says Srikanth.

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Exactly the ability to be focused during the match ended up being essential today according to Srikanth. In fact, for him it was all the difference between the first game that he lost and the second and the third which he won.

- I think I made too many mistakes in the first part of the first game and gave him that early lead but in the second and the third game I really managed to stay focused and then he made some mistakes. Had his smashes hit the line, I’m sure it would’ve been a close third game, says Srikanth.

Srikanth is now through to the semifinal tomorrow where he will be facing either Wong Wing Ki Vincent.