CWG: Shuttler Srikanth storms into singles semis

Gold Coast (Australia) April 13 (IANS) World No.1 Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the badminton men s singles semi-finals of the 21st Commonwealth Games thrashing Singapore s Zin Rei Ryan in straight games here on Friday.

Srikanth who rose to the No.1 spot in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings on Thursday hardly lost any sweat in thrashing the Singaporean 21-15 21-12 at the Carrara Sports Arena here. The top seeded Indian looked comfortable as he walked into the mid game break with a 11-7 lead in the opening game. Coming back the Guntur-born shuttler stiffled the Singaporean to earn his points as Srikanth easily swept the game in 17 minutes. In the second game Srikanth breezed away with a 11-5 lead at the breather even as the Singaporean tried hard to come back into the contest. Srikanth gave little away in the second half and comfortably clinched the contest in 17 minutes. The Indian will face England s Rajiv Ouseph in the semi-final on Saturday. The other Indian in the fray H.S. Prannoy will play Sri Lankan Dinuka Karunaratna in another quarter-final later on Friday. --IANS tri/