New Delhi: Kidambi Srikanth has become the only Indian shuttler to secure a spot in the main draw of the Malaysia Masters on Tuesday. Rest of the Indian badminton players were unable to progress through the singles qualifiers and hence, exited the super 500 tournament in Kuala Lumpur.
Srikanth, who has made a comeback, struggled in the faced set but was quick to recover from a first-game loss to beat Chinese Taipei’s Huang Yu Kai 9-21, 21-12, 21-6 in his second qualifying men’s singles match. Srikanth, who is a 2021 World Championships silver medallist, had earlier defeated another player from Chinese Taipei Kuo Kuan Lin 21-8, 21-13 in the opening round.
The 32-year-old former world number one player will face sixth-seeded Chinese opponent LU Guang Zu in the main draw. It will be a challenging clash for the Indian shuttler as Guang is considered to be one of the most wittiest players.
Other Indians crash out
In the other games at the qualifying event, Tharun Mannepalli lost 13-21, 21-23 against Thailand’s Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul while S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian went down 20-22, 20-22 against China’s Zhu Xuan Chen. Both the Indian shuttlers’ campaign was ended in the qualification stage.
Meanwhile in the women’s singles event, Anmol Kharb, who was a part of the Asian Team gold medal last year, faced a 14-21, 18-21 defeat at the hands of Taipei’s Hung Yi-Ting. The mixed doubles pair of Mohit Jaglan and Lakshita Jaglan also bowed out, losing 15-21, 16-21 to the Malaysian duo of Ming Yap Too and Lee Yu Shan.
Top Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy will begin their respective campaigns at the USD 475,000 event on Wednesday.
(With PTI inputs)
Kidambi Srikanth has become the only Indian shuttler to secure a spot in the main draw of the Malaysia Masters on Tuesday. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
