Kidambi Srikanth won his second consecutive Super Series title as he defeated the Rio Olympic champion and world No.6 Chen Long 22-20, 21-16 in men's singles at the Australian Open Super Series on Sunday.

After winning the Indonesia Open on June 18, this was Srikanth's second Super Series win in two weeks. As he lifted the Australia Open title, Srikanth became the first Indian man to win the championship. He is also the first Indian men's singles player to win two back-to-back Super Series titles.

Srikanth reached his third straight final and pocketed his fourth Super Series title overall -- China Open 2014, India Open 2015, Indonesia Open 2017 and Australian Open 2017.

With the win, Srikanth also became the first Indian male to reach the number one spot in the Destination Dubai Rankings.

The 24-year-old began the game with slight nerves as he made a service error in the very first serve of the game but he conquered them all immediately by winning a 28-shot rally with a beautiful half smash to level at 1-1.

The game remained neck-and-neck from the very beginning but a notable aspect of Srikanth's game was his improving ability to play deceptive shots.

The Indian went into the break with an 11-9 lead but Long soon made it 11-11.

Srikanth again opened a two-point lead at 17-15 but Long fought back and won four points on the trot to make it 19-17. At 18-17, Long displayed a wonderful mix of strong defence and apt attack to open the two-point gap.

The world No.11 attacked Long again to claim three straight points to make it 20-19, only for Long to smash his way to 20-20.

Srikanth then played a delightful defensive drop shot to Long's smash and made it 21-20 and then won the game 22-20.

The second game began sensationally with Srikanth and Long engaged in an exhaustive rally of patience, which the Hyderabadi won by a winner speed of 331 KPH.

Srikanth was at his attacking best and Long was mostly forced to defend. The world No.11 opened up a healthy 4-1 lead with the fourth point coming by a precise follow-up body smash at Long.

With Srikanth leading by 6-2, Long raced back into the game and won five points on the trot to make it 7-6.

The Hyderabadi attacker played two wonderful shots thereafter -- a smooth drop shot on the front court and a powerful smash on the back court -- to win two points and made it 8-7.

With two powerful smashes on two different sides of the court, Srikanth went into the break with an 11-9 lead.

After the break, Srikanth continued his rich form and raced ahead to 14-11.

The Indian maintained his three-point lead till 16-13 only to increase it to 17-13 with a powerful follow-up smash at the back court.

Srikanth's execution of his gameplan was admirable as he raced ahead to 19-14, remaining only two points away from winning back-to-back Super Series titles.

Long did pull back two points to make it 19-16 but Srikanth showed no nerves and wasted no more time in pocketing the game 21-16 and hence, the championship.