Kidambi Srikanth squandered a match lead to lose 21-15, 9-21, 18-21 to Lin Chun-Yi in a grueling 65-minute match.
Kidambi Srikanth’s winning streak at the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament was ended in the semi-final by Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-Yi in Basel on Saturday.
The former world number one squandered a match lead to lose 21-15, 9-21, 18-21 in a grueling match that lasted an hour and five minutes.
With this defeat, India’s challenge in the $210,000 tournament is over.
The match marked Srikanth’s first appearance in the last four matches of a tournament in 16 months. He last reached the semi-finals at the Hylo Open in November 2022.
After winning the opening match, Srikanth took a 4-1 lead in the second match.
However, errors began to creep into the 2021 World Championships silver medalist’s match and Srikanth lost the momentum to go down meekly, with Lin forcing a decider.
Srikanth found his rhythm in the decider with little separating the two shuttlers.
The Indian managed to take a slight lead at the break.
At 16-16, Lin managed to take the lead by widening a three-point gap. Srikanth reduced the deficit but nerves got the better of him, leading to the defeat.
