Kidambi Srikanth loses BWF World Championship final, settles for silver medal
A file picture of Srikanth.
|(Twitter)
India shuttler Kidambi Srikanth had to settle for a silver medal at the BWF World Championship 2021 after he lost to Singapore's Loh Kean Yew 21-15, 22-20 in the final on Sunday. With this effort, Srikanth became the first Indian men's singles player to reach the finals of the coveted event.
Also, this is only the fourth medal by a shuttler in the men's singles category after Prakash Padukone, B Sai Praneeth, and Lakshya Sen. Apart from this Indians have won eight other medals at the championship, with PV Sindhu the only player to bag a gold.Â
As far as Srikanth's final is concerned, the world no.14 started strongly and had a healthy 9-3 lead over his opponent. But soon, he faced some brilliant attack by the Singaporean and could not score any further. Yew kept up the pace and raced to finish the game.Â
In the second game, Srikanth fared much better, and even had his chances to draw level, but could not seize the opportunity. In fact, he saved two match points also, but just didn't have enough steam left in him to finish the game.Â
Earlier in the day, Japan's Akane Yamaguchi won the women's singles competition after beating world no.1 Tai Tzu-Ying of Chinese Taipei 21-14, 21-11 in the final.
Japan’s Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi won the men's doubles championship as well. Lastly, Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai from Thailand won gold in the mixed doubles section.Â
