PATUMWAN (THAILAND) —
Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth and Sankar Subramanian's campaign at the
Thailand Masters, a BWF Super 300 badminton tournament, came to an end with
their respective quarterfinal losses on Friday.
While Srikanth was defeated 17-21, 16-21 by sixth seed Wang
Zheng Xing of China, former world junior No. 1 Subramanian lost 21-19, 18-21,
13-21 against another Chinese Zhu Xuan Chen in a match that lasted one hour and
10 minutes.
Later, the eighth-seed Indian men’s doubles pair of Pruthvi
Krishnamurthy Roy and K. Sai Pratheek suffered a straight game 19-21, 18-21
loss to the second-seed Indonesian duo of Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Daniel
Marthin.
The last Indian in action will be Rakshitha Ramraj, who is
scheduled to play Thailand’s Thamonwan Nithiittikrai in the women’s singles
quarterfinal later in the day.
The world No. 47 Srikanth came into the quarterfinal after
beating Hong Kong’s Jason Gunawan, 41st in the badminton rankings, 21-19,
21-15. On the other hand, Subramanian produced a valiant fightback to defeat
Indonesia’s Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo 9-21, 21-10, 21-17 in 59 minutes to reach
the quarters.
Rakshitha, meanwhile, defeated Tung Ciou-tong of Chinese
Taipei 21-15, 21-12 in the round of 16 match.
Earlier on Thursday, Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde lost
their round of 16 mixed doubles match 21-19, 21-15 against local favourites
Ratchapol Makkasasithorn and Ruethaichanok Laisuan.
India’s highest-ranked entry in the men’s doubles world No.
49 pair of Hariharan Amsakarunan and Ruban Kumar Rethinasabapathi was ousted in
the second round after facing a 21-16, 8-21, 10-21 loss at the hands of fifth
seed Korean duo of Kang Min Hyuk and Kim Won Ho.
