BWF World Championship: Kidambi Srikanth loses 14-21, 18-21 to Son Wan Ho; crashes out in quarter-finals

PTI

New Delhi: India’s challenge in the men’s draw of the 2017 World Badminton Championships ended with the departure of Kidambi Srikanth in the quarter-finals.

Seeded eighth, Srikanth was playing top seed Wan Ho Son in the opening match on Day 5. After losing the first set 14-21, the Hyderbadi shuttler put up a tougher fight, winning 7 points on the trot in second set but couldn't prevent the Korean from claiming a 18-21 victory and wrapping up the tie.

The only two Indians remaining in the tournament are PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, both of whom will be playing their quarter-final matches later in the day.

Srikanth made a nervy start to the quarterfinals, allowing Son Wan to open up a 6-1 lead early on but the Indian slowly got his bearing as he made it 5-6. His movement improved and his trade mark smashes helped him to make it 8-8.

However, Son Wan managed to move ahead and a return from Srikanth going to net helped the Korean to have the 11-8 advantage at the first break.

The duo looked to outwit each other by changing the angles and pace of their strokes during the rallies. Srikanth reduced the margin to 12-13 but the Korean once again managed to move up to a 15-12 lead with a deceptive back hand return.

Srikanth's errors helped Son Wan to move to 19-13. The Korean grabbed six game point opportunity and sealed it when the Indian hit the net twice.

After the change of sides, Srikanth struggled to get his length right and his returns missed the baseline twice. The Indian even lost his left shoe during one of the rallies.

Srikanth struggle with his precision and placement of strokes and it helped Son Wan to eventually enter the breather with a handsome seven-point advantage.

After the break, Srikanth played a good rally with patience and it helped him to win the point but he seemed to go back to his power game, which backfired as the Korean kept moving ahead to 13-5.

Srikanth changed gears then and strengthened his defence to reel off seven straight points, making it 12-16 but Son Wan managed to break the streak with a return that found the Indian short at the forecourt.

The Indian missed the line again and also hit the net to allow Son Wan move to 19-14 advantage.

The Korean misjudged a shuttler to gift a point to Srikanth, who replied with a cross court smash to reduce the deficit to 17-19. Another smash from Srikanth and it was 18- 19.

However, Son Wan grabbed the match point when Srikanth rushed into a shot and hit the net. The Indian once again found the net to hand over the match to the Korean and see his 13-match winning streak lay in tatters.  

Srikanth had booked his place in the last eight after thrashing Anders Antonsen of Denmark in straight games. The 24-year-old, who clinched two successive titles at Indonesia and Australia and reached the finals at Singapore Open, produced a rich vein of form to sweep aside 14th seed Antosen 21-14, 21-18 in the third-round clash that lasted 42 minutes.

World No. 4 Sindhu will up against her Chinese opponent Sun Yu who is two places behind the Indian in rankings at No. 6. Newhal, on the other hand, Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour.

(With PTI inputs)