Disappointments continue for Indian shuttlers as the India No.1 Kidambi Srikanth crashed out in the first round of the Korea Open Superseries in Seoul on Wednesday. The eighth seed had staged a brilliant comeback by saving a match point in the second game against the Hong Kong player, Wong Wing ki Vincent. But in the end, it was not enough for the Indian who bowed out with a 10-21, 24-22, 17-21 defeat in 55 minutes.
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Srikanth had come to this tournament on the back of a quarter-final appearance at the Japan Open Superseries last week. The confidence-boosting performance had obviously raised hopes of a deep run for the World No. 14.
But the 20th ranked Wong proved to be a huge stumbling block. The two had played each other twice before with both their matches going the distance. The gritty battle was once more evident in today’s match as well as they made it another three-game duel.
Wong made a more confident start out of the two and quickly built up a huge lead over the Indian. From 5-3, Wong jumped out to 10-5 and extended it further to 17-10. Srikanth was a helpless spectator and could do nothing as the Hong Kong shuttler grabbed the first game 21-10.
The second game turned out to be an extremely hard-fought affair with the lead switching hands frequently. From 11-7, Srikanth surged ahead to 18-15, withstanding a barrage of powerful play from his opponent. The two ended up being locked at 20-20 and then 22-22 after which Srikanth saved a match point to eke out the game, 24-22.
Wong started being the aggressor early on in the decider and inched ahead 7-5. The Indian did make a brief comeback and snatched the lead 11-10 at half-time. He, however, could not keep Wong in check afterwards. The World No. 20 broke away from 17-17 to take four points on the trot and grab the win.
Earlier in the day, India’s HS Prannoy too met with a loss in his first round match. The World No. 31 went down fighting 23-21, 17-21, 15-21 to the 39th ranked Chinese Taipei player Wang Tzu Wei in 57 minutes.
