Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India’s Kidambi Srikanth stunned world No. 9 Canadian Victor Lai to reach the men’s singles quarter-finals at the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament.
Former world No. 1 Srikanth, the 2021 World Championships silver medallist, registered a straight-games win, 21-18, 21-19, over the Canadian, a bronze medallist at the last two BWF World Championships, at Shenzhen Arena.
Srikanth continued his strong run in China after a confident start to the tournament. He defeated Chinese Taipei’s World No. 21 Chi Yu-jen 21-16, 21-15 in just 35 minutes in the opening round. He will face Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong, who beat World No. 9 Toma Popov in the Round of 16.
Earlier, Lai had sent Lakshya Sen through the round of 32 to set up a meeting with Srikanth, who defeated Chi Yu Jen of Chinese Taipei in straight games.
This is Srikanth’s second quarter-final of the season, after the former world No. 1 finished runner-up at the US Open in June.
Meanwhile, Tanvi Sharma has been knocked out after losing to Tomoka Miyazaki 17-21, 21-18, 16-21. Tanvi’s loss ended India’s challenge in the women’s singles.
In the mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto also suffered a loss at the hands of Liu Kuang Heng and Hsu Yin-Hui of Taipei.
Later in the day, the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will take on the Frenchmen Cristo Popov and Toma Junior Popov.
