Indian challenge at Japan Open ends with Kidambi Srikanth's ouster

Ace shuttler and India's only hope in Japan Open, Kidambi Srikanth, lost the quarterfinal match to World No 33 Lee Dong Keun 21-19, 16-21, 18-21 on Friday.

According to a report by Firstpost, Srikanth took the closely contested first game from 19-19 to finish 21-19. But the South Korean came swinging back to stage the upset at $700,000 tournament.

Srikanth trailed from the beginning of the second game. Dong Keun successfully fended Srikanth's advances to extend his lead from 18-15 to win the second game 21-16.

Continuing taking advantage of the momentum, Dong Keun took the 6-4 lead in the third game. Srikanth put up some fight to equalise the score 9-9 and after mid-game break led the South Korean. But Dong Keun quickly equalised 13-13 off Srikanth's serve. The closely fought game ended up with Srikanth's ouster from Japan Open's quarterfinal.

On Thursday, PV Sidhu lost to fatigue and China's Gao Fangjie in the women's singles second round, her first preliminary exit in almost a year.  The Indian went down fighting 18-21 19-21 in 55 minutes to the world no 14 Chinese. She had lost in the opening round at the Denmark Open last October.

HS Prannoy, Manu Attri, B Sumeeth Reddy, Pranaav Jerry Chopra, and N Sikki Reddy were other Indian casualties at Japan Open.