New Delhi: For Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and S Subramanian, it was all over at the Thailand Masters as both the players crashed out of the Super 300 tournament. After beginning their campaign on a fabulous note and carrying on the winning momentum right till the quarters, both the players lost their respective men’s singles quarterfinal matches on Friday.
Srikanth, who had dominated the event with straight sets victory, lost his quarters clash 17-21, 16-21 against sixth seed Zheng Xing Wang of China. On the other hand, Subramanian gave a tough fight to another Chinese Xuan Chen Zhu before losing 21-19, 18-21, 13-21 in a match that lasted one hour and 10 minutes.
Srikanth out of form, momentum
The former number one shuttler, who look in terrific form throughout the event, was totally outplayed by his Chinese opponent. Although he played a decent game but not even for a moment was he able to dominate and put pressure on Wang, who sensed the opportunity and knocked him over using his superior skillsets.
Meanwhile, Subramaniam looked classic in the opening set, winning it 21-19 after a hard fight but the remaining two sets did not go in his favour as his consistency started dipping against the Chinese opponent. In set two, he gave a tough fight by winning several points but towards the end, Zhu snatches a closed victory winning it 21-18. The second-set defeat turned fatal for the Indian shuttler as he could not do much in the third losing it 13-21.
Meanwhile, later in the day, eight-seeded Indian men’s doubles pair of Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy and K Sai Pratheek will be up against second seeds Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Daniel Marthin of Indonesia, keeping some hopes high for the Indians. The other Indian in action will be Rakshitha Ramraj who is scheduled to play Thailand’s Thamonwan Nithiittikrai in the women’s singles quarterfinal.
(With PTI inputs)
Kidambi Srikanth lost his quarters clash 17-21, 16-21 against sixth seed Zheng Xing Wang of China to bow out of the Thailand Masters. Badminton Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
