Suncheon
India’s Kidambi Srikanth lost to third seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in straight games in the men’s singles semi-final of the Korea Open Badminton Championships 2022 on Saturday here at the Palma Stadium. In the opening game, world no. 12 Kidambi Srikanth started off well taking a 5-2 lead by winning four consecutive points against world no.8 Jonatan Christie but the Indonesian clawed his way back to make it 6-6. Going into the break Srikanth restored his three-point lead with scores being 11-8. The third seed Indonesian kept fighting and so did Srikanth. Srikanth led 18-17 at one stage but Christie won three points on the trot to ultimately win the opening game 21-19.
In the second game, the Indonesian shuttler started off by winning three consecutive points taking a 3-0 lead. Christie maintained that lead as both players went into the break with world championship medallist Srikanth trailing 8-11. Srikanth clawed his way back to take a 14-13 lead but from there the Indonesian won six consecutive points to race to a 19-14 lead and went on to win the second game 21-16. Kidambi Srikanth lost the match 19-21 16-21 in 50 minutes and with his defeat, India’s campaign in Korea Open has ended. Srikanth had lost to Jonatan Christie recently in the Swiss Open semi-final last month.
