Kidambi Srikanth knocked out of Hong Kong Open quarterfinal, India's singles challenge ends

India continued to suffer heartbreak in the Hong Kong Open badminton tournament after Kidambi Srikanth suffered a 17-21,13-21 loss to Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto in the quarterfinals. With Srikanth’s loss, Sameer Verma was the lone Indian remaining in the tournament but he too crashed out of the tournament as he suffered a hard-fought 15-21, 21-19, 11-21 loss to Singapore's Lee Cheuk Yiu.

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Both players started off strongly in the first game with Srikanth and Nishimoto displaying good skills. The Japanese went ahead by four points and took a 8-5 leads but in the middle stages, Srikanth fought back and at 13-14, the game was evenly poised in favour of the Indian. However, Srikanth committed some errors and suffered a lean patch towards the end of the game as Nishimoto won four consecutive points to take a 19-15 lead. The Japanese held his nerve and the first game was won 21-17.

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In the second game, Srikanth started disastrously as Nishimoto won seven straight points to take a 11-7 lead. With the Japanese player having momentum, Srikanth found it impossible to come back. The Indian tried to mount a fightback, but the Japanese sustained the pressure and won at crucial intervals to secure the match with a 21-13 victory in the final game.

Srikanth was the lone Indian in the fray after PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy had all crashed out earlier in the tournament. Sindhu put up an epic fight against Sung ji Hyun, losing 24-26,20-22 to the South Korean. Saina Nehwal had exited in the first round after a hard-fought loss to Akane Yamaguchi. Saina won the first game 21-10 but Yamaguchi fought back and won the next two games 21-10, 21-19.

Parupalli Kashyap progressed to the next round but suffered a 16-21, 13-21 to Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia while HS Prannoy lost to Srikanth in the pre-quarterfinals.