India’s K Srikanth won his third Superseries title of the calendar year after beating Korea’s Lee Hyun-il in the final of the Denmark Open on Sunday. The 24-year-old thus became the first Indian man to win the Denmark Open title after Prakash Padukone in 1979. He also joined Saina Nehwal as the only two Indians to win three Superseries titles in a year.
After beating world No 1 Son Wan Ho in a three-game semi-final match that lasted 91 minutes on Saturday, the 37-year-old Lee had nothing left in the tank to stop Srikanth from adding the Denmark Open trophy to his cabinet. Srikanth had earlier this year won Superseries titles in Australia and Indonesia, and was the losing finalist at the Singapore Open.
The Guntur lad was in his usual attacking element as he showed no mercy towards his older opponent. After coasting along to take the first game 21-10 in just 12 minutes, Srikanth raced along to a 11-1 lead at the interval of the second. At this point, the crowd in Odense was cheering every single point won by Lee loudly, but they were few and far in between as Srikanth wrapped up the game 21-5. The match lasted just 25 minutes.