BWF World Tour Finals: Kidambi Srikanth loses second game, road to semis gets tougher

BANGKOK: India shuttler Kidambi Srikanth put up a fighting show but couldn't turn the match in his favour as he was defeated by Taiwan's Wang Tzu-Wei in his second group-stage match in the ongoing BWF World Tour Finals on Thursday.

Wang defeated Srikanth 21-19, 9-21, 19-21 in a match that lasted for 78 minutes. Srikanth began the match very well with a lead of 4-2 but Wang made a comeback to square off the points at 8-8, however, the Indian shuttler continued his fine form and pocketed the first game (21-19).

In the second game, Wang dominated the proceeding and bagged the set (9-21) quite comfortably. The Taiwanese badminton player maintained dominance in the game and took a three-point lead in the decider.

Srikanth made a comeback within minutes to square the points at 9-9 but Wang took the lead (10-11) at the mid-game break in the third set. After the break, Srikanth came close but was unable to win the third set. Wang's backhand shot that came out of nowhere was the highlight of the match.

On Wednesday, Srikanth was defeated by Denmark's Anders Antonsen in his first group-stage match of the tournament.

Antonsen defeated Srikanth 15-21, 21-16, 21-18 in his first match in the World Tour Finals. The entire match lasted for one hour and 17 minutes. Srikanth came out all guns blazing in the first game and he did not give his opponent any chance, wrapping up the game 21-15 inside 22 minutes.

In the second game, Antonsen managed to change his fortunes around. With the winning momentum on his side, Antonsen capitalised in the third game and he walked away with a victory in the match.