Kidambi Srikanth Exits China Masters After Quarterfinal Defeat
Quarterfinals Mark the End for Srikanth
File image of Former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth(Photo: @India_AllSports/X)
Shenzhen, Sep 4: Kidambi Srikanth's journey at the China Masters, a BWF Super 750 tournament, concluded with a loss to Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Srikanth faced a defeat with scores of 16-21, 16-21 at the Shenzhen Arena. This match marked his first quarterfinal appearance at a BWF World Tour Super 750 event or higher in three years.
With this loss, Lee extended his advantage in their head-to-head encounters, as Srikanth has now been defeated by Lee in their last four meetings. The only time Srikanth triumphed over Lee was during the first round of the 2018 India Open.
In the previous round, Srikanth achieved a remarkable upset against Canadian World No. 9 and recent World Championship bronze medalist Victor Lai, winning with scores of 21-18, 21-19. He had also secured a victory against Chi Yu-jen from Chinese Taipei, ranked World No. 21, with a score of 21-16, 21-15 in just 35 minutes during the opening round.
Later in the day, the only remaining Indian challenge at the 750 event, former World No. 1 duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, were set to compete against the Danish pair of Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen for a spot in the semifinals.
They advanced to the quarterfinals after defeating France's Toma Junior Popov and Christo Popov with scores of 21-17, 22-24, 21-9.
Earlier, the women's singles campaign for India at the BWF Super 750 tournament ended on Thursday when Tanvi Sharma lost to Japan's Tomoka Miyazaki with scores of 21-17, 18-21, 21-16.
Additionally, India's mixed doubles team of Dhruv Kapila and Olympian Tanisha Crasto was eliminated in the second round after losing 21-18, 21-18 to Liu Kuang-Heng and Hsu Yin-Hui from Chinese Taipei.