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The Indian challenge in Japan ended as Kidambi Srikanth lost in the quarterfinals of Japan Super Series 750 level tournament played at Tokyo on Friday.
The first game was a close fought one with both players fighting for each point. Srikanth played some lovely shots and held his nerves, winning the first set 21-19.
In the second game, the Korean Lee D-k showed aggressive stroke play and did not allow the Indian to attack. The Korean led the entire match and won second set 21-16 to force the match into the decider.
In the deciding game, there were chances for Kidambi Srikanth but the Korean player showed much more attacking stroke play and made little mistakes. It was a close fought match as Lee D-k held his nerves to win the third set 21-18 to move into the semi-finals. PV Sindhu lost in the 2nd round to Gao J F in straight games.
It was a good performance by K Srikanth who looked out of sorts in the Asian Games 2018 losing to Wong K in the first round itself. He is currently 8th in the rankings of men’s badminton. Now the Indian shuttler’s will take part in the China Open starting from 18th September.
K Srikanth won the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games 2018. Since then it has not been a great performance by Indian shuttler. In this tournament, Huang of China in the first round and then defeated Wong K of Hong in the 2nd round. HS Prannoy also lost to Ginting in the 2nd round.
PV Sindhu is currently at 2nd position in the latest BWF World tour rankings. As far of men, Sameer Verma moves up two places to number 4th. Kidambi Srikanth and other Indian shuttler’s need to work hard to come in the top 8 position of BWF World tour rankings.
Let us hope that Indian shuttlers can do much better in the upcoming China Open. Saina Nehwal took rest from the Japan Open Super Series tournament.
