India's Kidambi Srikanth fought frayed nerves to put up a valiant show before going down to Chinese badminton superstar and world No. 3 Lin Dan 6-21, 21-11, 18-21 in the men's singles quarterfinals in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday. The loss now leaves the burden of a medal finish for India in badminton on PV Sindhu, who will play her semi-final on Thursday.
Coming into the encounter having not dropped a single game in the previous three matches, Srikanth looked nervous and overawed by the occasion. With unforced errors gnawing at his game, he fell behind 1-11 early in the first game. Playing a dominant game, Lin had the Indian undone with his drops, smashes and amazing retrievals. Even the smashes that Srikanth could manage, like the cross-court one at 6-20, sailed wide. Lin won the first game in 16 minutes.
Nosing ahead 3-0 lead in the second, Srikanth, whose brief chat with coach Pullela Gopichand at the break seemed to have paid off, held on to his lead at 7-4. The world No. 11-ranked Indian was playing like a wholly different player, a departure from his flummoxed self in the first game. Lin, who slipped quite a few times during the second game, asked for the court to be swabbed again. A brilliant smash had a hapless Lin on all fours, as the Indian went ahead 16-9, scenting a decider. Soon enough Srikanth wrapped up the game 21-11 as Lin dropped a game only for the third time in as many Olympic appearances.
The third game was a tense and close one, with Srikanth forcing Lin to scamper all over the court, drawing even at 7-7 before the Chinese dispatched a scorching smash to close in 11-13. Though Srikanth put up a brilliant effort to stay afloat, Lin overpowered him with his well-placed smashes to move into the semi-finals with a 21-18 win in the decider.
Srikanth had been in stellar form at the Olympics, pulling off a win over world No. 5 Jan O Jorgensen in straight games in the pre-quarterfinals.
Srikanth, making his first Olympic appearance, had lost to the two-time Olympic gold medallist and defending champion in two of the three occasions that they played each other before this. The Indian's sole win over his childhood hero came in the final of the China Open Super Series Premier tournament two years ago.
Srikanth later regretted making some crucial mistakes near the end of the match.
In the second game, he said the plan was to "not make simple mistakes like I made in the first game". About his comeback from the second game onwards, Srikanth said: "I wanted to be a little more aggressive, that's the only strategy." He said he was happy with his performance in the match.
About the improvement in his performance at the Olympics -- compared with how he had played before in 2016 -- Srikanth said he had not been unhappy with the way he was playing, just that he was not winning. He also credited the break he took before the Olympics for the gains.