As Alex Lanier began to exert his dominance early on in the match against Kiran George, the commentators discussed what makes the French teenager a highly-rated prospect in men’s singles. The imposing physicality is the most obvious, but former Denmark head coach Steen Pedersen mentioned that his biggest strength was there are no evident weaknesses in his game. Among all the young Europeans he has seen, he makes the least errors, he added. At 20-14 in the first game, most of those observations rang true. The lead, and a place in the quarterfinal, were within the 18-year-old’s grasp.
But Kiran had other ideas. In what was a stirring fightback, that turned the atmosphere inside the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium electric on Thursday afternoon, he saved six game points and took the opening game on the back of winning eight straight points. From there on, Kiran started controlling the match as he sealed his spot in the quarterfinal with a 22-20 21-13 win in 46 minutes.
It was a day of two comebacks and a cruise for the Indian contingent – Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also had to fight back from a game down to seal their place in the last eight of men’s doubles, whereas PV Sindhu cruised through her second-round match to ensure three quarterfinals for the Indian contingent.
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