It was smooth sailing for India’s ex-World Championship silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth as he cruised into the semifinals of the Super 300 Canada Open, beating Chou Tien Chen 21-18, 21-9 on Friday night in Ontario.

Indian player Srikanth, ranked World No 49, took down Chou Tien Chen. However, he’ll have to overcome the Japanese retriever next, where he holds a 6-4 advantage.

The victory over the top seed, with the Taiwanese player losing to an Indian for the second time in just two weeks after falling to Ayush Shetty in Iowa last week. It allows Srikanth to continue his impressive run at the Malaysia Masters and showcase his fantastic strokeplay on a different continent. Although Srikanth missed out last week, he’s eager to secure his first title of the season.

Srikanth has been consistently delivering high quality badminton after quite a while, and he appears to be relishing this low pressure phase of his career, all while still playing at the level of a Top Ten player.

Srikanth, who is 32, has matchups against the 30-year-old. He managed to defeat the Japanese player, who can be tough for many other Indians, in straight sets at the last World Championship, but the tenacious runner is always a challenge and has shown great consistency this season.

Nishimoto is the first Japanese hurdle for Srikanth, who is finally close to winning a title after a long struggle with his form and fitness. Even with the obstacles, his gameplay has remained thrilling and fun, especially in a sea of defensive matches.But if Srikanth can get past Nishimoto, he might go up against Kodai Naraoka, the top seed, where he has a 0-4 record, which means it’s time to settle the score.

Nishimoto came out on top against a tough opponent, Sankar Muthusamy Subramaniam, with a score of 21-15, 5-21, 21-17.

In the women’s singles, Shriyanshi Valishetty, a promising young player from India, faced off against 24 year old Danish player Amalie Schulz in a fierce match, ultimately losing 21-12, 19-21, 19-21.

Shriyanshi made some impressive comebacks in both the second and third sets but never managed to take the lead after winning the first. She fought hard to close a 9-17 gap in the final set, getting as close as 19-20, but couldn’t clinch the win in the end, wrapping up a solid North American tour.

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