India’s badminton ace Kidambi Srikanth today just blew away Korean veteran Lee Hyun II in just 25 minutes in the final today to lift the Denmark Open trophy 21-10, 21-5. This is Srikanth’s third Super Series Premier title. The Indian player dominated the game entirely to log a straight-game victory and take the $750,000 Denmark Open without really breaking into a sweat. Even though the Korean was 12 years his senior, nevertheless, the win is a major one for the Indian as Lee was very experienced and had even beaten World No. 2 Son Wan Ho in the semi-finals yesterday. However, today, he just was not able to even get a look-in in the match, except for a brief at the start of the match when both were tied 4-4. However, thereafter it was all Srikanth as he opened the lead to 9-5. Whether he was injured was not revealed.
Almost every point was dominated by Srikanth and no matter where he aimed to land the shuttle, Lee just was not up to getting there far less actually making a telling return. Lee especially could not manage to return Srikanth’s fierce smashes and cross court returns, which gave the Indian 14-8 lead. The going got so bad for Lee that he started making errors at the baseline and miscued strokes as the lead went inexorably to 17-8.
Lee handed over another easy 2 points to Srikanth and after winning a couple of points, another mistake handed the first game to Srikanth on a platter.
Srikanth started the second game with a fierce attack and kept the momentum going to lead 11-1 in no time at all. Lee either hit the returns long, wide or into the net, leaving fans flabbergasted at this one-sided encounter.
Ultimately, it seemed the match was over before it even started!d