Malaysia Open 2019: Kidambi Srikanth loses in the quarterfinals 

The Indian challenge at the Malaysian Open ended as Kidambi Srikanth lost to Olympic champion Chen Long in the quarterfinals of the Super Level 750 tournament played at Kuala Lumpur on Friday. It was a spirited performance by the Indian but he eventually lost the match.

In the first game, Kidambi Srikanth made a great start with fantastic shots and placements. At the interval, the Indian had an 11-7 lead. After the interval, Srikanth continued to play with aggression and took a 16-11 lead. Chen Long then fought back into the game with some excellent shots and leveled the scores at 16-16. The Chinese showed a fighting spirit to win the first set, 21-18.

Both players fought for each point in the second game. At the interval, Chen Long led 11-7 and continued to lead the Indian at 16-8. Kidambi Srikanth then produced some brilliant badminton, putting pressure on Chen Long. The Indian reduced the margin to 17-18 and then equaled at 18-18.

Kidambi Srikanth continued to show his fighting spirit to equal the score at 19-19. Chen Long held his nerves to win two points in succession to win the second game, 21-19. With this loss, the Indian challenge ended at the Malaysia Open 2019.

In this tournament, PV Sindhu and the mixed doubles pair of Pranav Chopra and Sikki Reddy had reached the second round of Malaysia Open. Kidambi Srikanth who got to the finals of India Open last week also performed reasonably well.

It has been a decent performance by Kidambi Srikanth this season so far. It was his fourth quarterfinals appearance in the BWF World Tour. In today’s match against Chen Long, the Indian had chances to win the game but made simple errors which cost him dearly.

PV Sindhu lost in the second round, which was a shock to Indian badminton fans. Let's hope that Indian shuttlers would perform to their best next time around.