Veteran Indian badminton player Kidambi Srikanth made a huge impact at the Chinese Badminton Masters Super 750 when he stunned world number nine Victor Lai and advanced to the men’s singles quarter-finals.
Image: Kidambi Srikanth stunned world number nine Victor Lai in straight games to reach the quarter-finals of the China Masters. Photo: Annie’s photo
Key points
- Kidambi Srikanth defeated world number nine Victor Lai in straight matches at the China Masters Super 750 tournament.
- The Indian player won the second round of the men’s singles with scores of 21-18 and 21-19.
- Srikanth, a former world number one and 2021 World Championships silver medalist, has advanced to the quarter-finals.
- He is scheduled to face Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk-yu in the next quarter-final match.
- The other Indian participants, Tanvi Sharma and Dhruv Kapila/Tanisha Crasto (mixed doubles), were eliminated from the tournament.
Veteran Indian badminton player Kidambi Srikanth stunned world number nine Victor Lai of Canada in straight games to enter the men’s singles quarter-finals at the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament.
The 33-year-old Srikanth, who reached the US Open Super 300 final earlier this year, powered his way to a surprise 21-18 21-19 win over Lai, who won his second bronze at the World Championships in New Delhi last month.
Srikanth, a former world number one and 2021 World Championship silver medalist, will face Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk-yu in his next match.
Performance of other Indian shuttlers
In the women’s singles, Tanvi Sharma, who recently won the Taipei Open World Super 300 title, showed courage in the fight but collapsed at the back end, falling 17-21, 21-18, 16-21 to Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki, ranked ninth in the world, in the second round.
Indians Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto also withdrew after losing 18-21, 18-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Liu Kuang-heng and Hsu Yin-hui in the mixed doubles.
Srikanth’s first dominant game
Srikanth showed his fighting ability and rained down thunderous jumps with clear effect. After an initial 3-3 start, Srikanth fell behind 3-7 but recovered to 8-8 as Lai committed a series of unforced errors. The Canadian, who won his first Super 1000 title in Indonesia this year, entered the second half with a two-point lead. Lai seemed to have found his rhythm as he stifled Srikanth with powerful strokes to move to 15-11.
However, the Indian veteran pushed the ball to the baseline, followed it up with a winning shot, and then beat his opponent home. Lai sprayed one home to make it 15-15. Another cross-court smash took the Indian to 18-16. Srikanth quickly got three points in the match with a shot into the net and sealed it on his second chance when Lai slotted home again.
Securing victory in the second match
After changing sides, Srikanth was once again behind but continued to breathe down his rival’s neck.
Srikanth trailed 5-9 after a series of unforced errors. Srikanth stayed behind to do the catch up again, and continued to fight. From 9-14, two aces and two net errors from his Indian opponent helped Srikanth make it 13-14.
An aggressive comeback across the field made it 14-15 as Srikanth continued to kick at his opponent’s feet. Soon it was back to 18-18.
Lai then went long and Srikanth sent one into the front corner to earn match points. The Canadian sprayed wide again as Srikanth pumped his fist after taking the win.
