File photo of Kidambi Srikanth
Kidambi Srikanth clinched a historic silver medal at the World Badminton Championships after losing in straight games to Loh Keen Yew of Singapore in men’s singles here on Sunday.
Former world number one Srikanth lost 15-21, 20-22 to his Malaysia-born rival in 43 minutes.
The 28-year-old Srikanth thus bettered the exploits of the great Prakash Padukone (bronze in 1983), B Sai Praneeth (bronze in 2019) and Lakshya Sen (bronze in this edition), whom he defeated in the semi-finals on Saturday.
The first silver placed Srikanth along with PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, who had been runners-up in the past.
Sindhu had won the coveted gold, two silver and two bronze in 2019, while Saina won silver in 2015 Jakarta and bronze in 2017 Glasgow.
This is also the first time that India has won two medals in men’s singles at the World Championships.
Despite the loss, it is a significant achievement for Srikanth, who has been troubled by fitness issues and lack of form since he injured his knee during the 2017 French Open final after winning four Super Series titles that year.
Playing his first final since the 2019 India Open, 12th seed Srikanth fought for supremacy with Loh, who relied on his explosive attacking game and light footwork to put pressure on the Indian.
Srikanth, currently ranked 14th in the world, had a few moments but lost the lead 9-3 and 18-16 in two matches, slipping the coveted title from his fingers.
The 24-year-old Loh started with a brilliant net dribble and took a 3-1 lead early on, but Srikanth soon turned the tables by engaging his opponent in small rallies and using his deception to set the points.
Srikanth’s strategy of delaying his returns paid dividends as he went into a 9-3 advantage with a powerful smash.
Loh then tried to dominate the front court, but Srikanth took a four-point lead with another smash on his opponent’s backhand in the middle of the game.
After the restart, Loh found his footing after going 11-11 to win the next four points and then took a jump to take the lead.
The world number 22 iron soon moved to 17-13 and Srikanth made a lot of unforeseen mistakes.
A lightning fast net play helped Loh earn five game points and sealed it when Srikanth made the next mistake.
After switching sides, the two fought tooth and nail together, leading 4-4.
Srikanth tries to engage his opponent in flat exchanges, sandwiched with angled returns and smashes to advance to a 7-4 advantage.
But again, unforced errors started to haunt Srikanth as Loh made it 9-9. Another pure error and it was the advantage of Loh, who entered the mid-game gap at 11-9.
Srikanth drew parity with a backhand cross-court flick, a perfect cross-court net return before winning the longest rally to lead 16-14.
At 18-16, Srikanth sent one over the net and missed the line, while Loh deflected a body smash to take the lead at 19-18.
Another fast paced rally ended with the Indian going into the net and Loh getting two match points.
Srikanth showed great courage to save two match points over the net, but he made the next mistake as Loh, then pushed the shuttle backwards with a precise return to go down on his knees in disbelief.
Thus Loh became the first person from his country to win the World Championship title.
This was a major achievement for Loh, who made it to the finals after a sensational season after the Olympics, winning the Dutch Open, the Hylo Open and runner-up in the Indonesia Open Super 1000.
– PTI. with inputs from
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