Badminton News: India’s participation in the Singapore Masters Super 750 tournament came to an end when Kidambi Srikanth suffered a two-game loss to Chinese Taipei’s Chia Hao Lee in the second round of men’s singles.
Srikanth lost 15-21 19-21 in the match which lasted only 37 minutes. This is their first meeting on the professional circuit.
In the first round, Srikanth, a silver medalist at the 2021 World Championships, emerged victorious over Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen with scores of 21-15, 21-19.
Chia Hao Lee, meanwhile, picked up a win over Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto in her opening match after being promoted to the main draw from reserve.
At the start of the tournament, Indian promising Priyanshu Rajawat’s impressive performance came to an end in the second round when he lost to third seed Kodai Naraoka.
Rajawat, who upset Japan’s world No. 15 Kanta Tsuneyama in the first round, was beaten by Naraoka with back-to-back matches 17-21, 16-21.
Naraoka, ranked fourth in the world, had earlier knocked out HS Prannoy in the first round, maintaining his dominance against the 37th-ranked Indian for 47 minutes.
In the men’s doubles category, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila faced defeat against Ben Lane and Sean Vendy of England, losing the match 15-21, 19-21 in 41 minutes.
Notably, two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu, the defending champion, lost in the first round to Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, who is currently ranked number one in the world. Former World Championships bronze medalist Lakshya Sen and London Olympics bronze medalist Saina Nehwal were also eliminated from the tournament in the first round.
India’s men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and world number 11 Chirag Shetty and Commonwealth Games women’s doubles bronze medalists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand were also eliminated early in their respective first-round matches.
Tags: kidambi srikanth, India, Singapore Open 2023
