Fullerton (USA), June 30:
India’s Kidambi Srikanth ended his impressive run with a runner-up finish at the US Open Super 300 badminton tournament after going down fighting in three games to Chinese Taipei’s Su Li-yang in the men’s singles final here.
The 33-year-old Srikanth, a silver-medallist at the 2021 World Championships, recovered from the loss of the opening game to force a decider but couldn’t match the pace and intensity of world No. 46 Su, who is nine years his junior.
Srikanth, who had claimed six Super Series titles between 2014 and 2017, eventually lost 15-21, 21-16, 9-21 in a physical battle that lasted just over an hour here on Sunday.
“I could have played a little better maybe in the opening set. Otherwise, I feel I’ve played okay. The second half of third set it was just hitting really well all of a sudden,” said the man from Guntur after the match.
A Rio Olympics quarterfinalist, Srikanth also ended second at the Malaysia Masters and Syed Modi International last year.