It wasn't the most challenging scenario Srikanth Kidambi has found himself in over the course of his long badminton career, but in the second round of Canda Open Super 300 in Ontario on Thursday against Wang Po-wei, he found himself trailing by a solid margin in both games. In the first game, when he trailed 5-11 at the interval, Priyanshu Rajawat strode onto the court with purpose. The 23-year-old, who had faced Srikanth 24 hours earlier on this very court at Markham Pan Am Center and had lost in three entertaining games, was now on coaching duties, along with former India doubles player Manu Attri. Priyanshu, usually reserved in his media interactions, had plenty to say in the brief break. And Srikanth listened intently to his younger teammate (who he trains with in Hyderabad). Whatever Priyanshu said, must have had an impact on the former World No 1 as he tightened up his game. From 5-11 at the interval, Srikanth started to slowly close the gap, then went on a spree of six straight points from 13-18 down to take the lead, and eventually closed the match out 21-19, 21-14 in 41 minutes to enter the Canada Open quarterfinals. This is Srikanth's third quarterfinal appearance of the year, and second in three tournaments, after he turned around his form at Malaysia Masters a month ago by reaching the final. Even in Game 2, Srikanth was off to a slow start, trailing 1-6. But once more, he put together a 7-point streak to retake the lead. There was to be another run of points late on in the match, this time from 10-13 down – just as Wang was starting to harbour hopes of a fightback after the mid-game interval – Srikanth put together his best streak of nine consecutive points. It was the most defining pattern of Srikanth's win, as he showed both his tendency to make frustrating errors but also the grit to dig in, fight it out in defensive rallies to win points when not dominating exchanges. The errors, however, would need to come down when he faces top seed Chou Tien Chen next. The Chinese Taipei veteran is one of the hardest working shuttlers on tour and can frustrated the most steady rally-style players on the circuit on his day. The world No 6 leads 9-3 in the Head-to-Head against Srikanth. Shriyanshi goes through Up against Malaysia's new women's singles No 1 Letshanaa Karupathevan, world No 75 Shriyanshi Valishetty produced a solid all-round showing to win 21-15, 21-14 in just 35 minutes. The teenager has been making a good impression in flashes, her power game a standout feature for someone her age. On Thursday, she showed a bit more of the deft side to her gameplay as she got the better of the world No 45. In the first-round, the 18-year-old had gotten the better of Polina Burhova 21-18, 22-20 in 40 minutes. Shriyanshi will next face Denmark's Amalie Schulz, who knocked out third seed Sung Shuo Yun. Shriyanshi has won both the previous encounters against Schulz – in matches that went the distance – at Abu Dhabi Masters 2023 and Slovenia Open 2024. With just six spots separating the two in world rankings (Shriyanshi at 75 and Schulz at 69), this could be a hard-fought match. Later in the day, Sankar Subramanian – who prevailed against US Open champion Ayush Shetty in a battle of junior World Championships medallists – made it the perfect day for India in Ontario as he overcame Huang Yu Kai 21-19, 21-14, to set up a challenging last-eight clash against third seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan. It will be an interesting clash of similar styles, as Nishimoto is the quintessential Japanese rally-er, hustling on the court to keep retrieving the shuttle that one more time. But Sankar would be no stranger to that, as the leftie from Chennai has mentioned in the past how he has been inspired by Kento Momota's precision and controlled gameplay. Sankar however has lost the solitary meeting against world No 12 Nishimoto and pretty convincingly at that, when they met at Orleans Masters earlier this year.
