Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth defeated world No. 9 Victor Lai of Canada in straight games to enter the men’s singles quarterfinals of the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament in Shenzhen on Thursday.
Showcasing his ability to fight and rain down thunderous jump smashes to telling effect, Srikanth started at 3-3 but fell behind 3-7 before recovering to 8-8 as Li committed a series of unforced errors. The Canadian, who won his maiden Super Thousand title in Indonesia this year, went into the interval with a two-point cushion.
He seemed to have found his rhythm as he crammed Srikanth with smashes to move to 15-11. However, the veteran Indian pushed one to the backline and followed it up with a jump smash winner before outwitting his rival at the net. Li sprayed one into the net as the rally continued. Another cross-court smash took India to 18-16, and Srikanth soon grabbed three points with a net shot, sealing a second chance when Li found the net again.
After changing sides, Srikanth was again lagging but kept coming back at his rival. He fell 5-9 behind after a series of unforced errors. A series of net errors and two smashes from Srikanth helped India make it 13-14, and an attacking cross-court return made it 14-15 as Srikanth kept snapping at his rival’s heels. He soon clawed back to 18-18, and finally, his rival sent one into the forehand corner, earning a point for Srikanth.
The ace shuttler, who had reached the US Open Super 300 final earlier this year, rallied his way to notch an upset 21-18, 21-19 win over Lai, who clinched his second World Championship bronze in New Delhi last month.
The former world No. 1 and 2021 World Championship silver medallist Srikanth will now face Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu in his next match.
Meanwhile, in the women’s singles, Tanya Sharma, who recently won the Taipei Open World Tour Super 300 title, staged a strong fight against world No. 9 Tomoko Miyazaki of Japan in the second round but went down 17-21, 21-18, 16-21.
India’s Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto also bowed out after losing 18-21, 18-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Liu Kuang Heng and Hsu Yin Hui.