It has been a bit more than one and a half years since Danish shuttler Hans-Kristian Vittinghus reached the BWF World Superseries Finals in Dubai to produce the greatest moment of his career. Until now. Today, the 30 year-old reached the final of the Australian Open to play for his maiden Superseries title tomorrow.
Hans-Kristian Vittinghus will play Korean Jeon Hyeok-jin in the final of the 750.000 Dollars event after he saw off Srikanth Kidambi in Sydney on Saturday. It’s going to be the first meeting between the two singles players.
The in-form Vittinghus survived a tight opening game to account for India's Srikanth Kidambi 22-20, 21-13.
Korea's Jeon needed three games over almost 70 minutes before he defeated Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 21-19, 16-21, 21-19. The latter eased past current world champion Chen Long in the Sydney quarter-finals.
„I trusted my game plan all the way“ - Hans-Kristian Vittinghus
„I am very happy with another solid performance today! Managed to beat Srikanth Kidambi in straight games and I'm now in the final of Australian Open“, the Dane wrote via Facebook.
„I handled the situation well today and trusted my game plan all the way - also when I had some trouble in the first game. Hoping to produce more of the same tomorrow.“
„I never played my final's opponent before, but I trust I'll have my chances once more if I can keep my composure and perform like I've done the last four days. Come on!“
Hans-Kristian Vittinghus is the only European player left in tournament.
Indian Superstar Saina Nehwal defeated second seed Wang Yihan of China to enter the final where she will face with Sun Yu another Chinese player.
Last year, it was Spanish world champion Carolina Marin who took the women’s singles title when she beat China’s Wang Shixian.
The finals results:
Australian Open Superseries 2016
MS: Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (DEN) vs Jeon Hyeok-jin (KOR)
WS: Saina Nehwal (IND) vs Sun Yu (CHN)
MD: Pratama/Suwardi (INA) vs Gideon/Sukamuljo (INA)
WD: Bao/Chen (CHN) vs Maheswari/Polii (INA)
XD: Zheng/Chen (CHN) vs Lu Kai/Huang (CHN)
Article and photos by Manuel Rösler. Photo (LIVE) by BadmintonPhoto.