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Indian experienced shuttler Kidambi Srikanth's journey in the Swiss Open has ended as he faced a close defeat in the men's singles semi-finals on Saturday. In a match that lasted one hour and five minutes, Indian badminton player Srikanth lost to Taiwan's Lin Chun-Yi 21-15, 9-21, 18-21.
Since the 2022 Hilo Open Super 300 held in Germany, this was the first time Srikanth reached the semi-finals of a BWF Tour event.
First game
Srikanth made a good start in the Swiss Open semifinal match against Lin and took an early lead. After this, Srikanth took it brilliantly to 11-5 and won the first game by 21-15.
Second game
In the second match, Srikanth continued his domination and took an early lead of 4-1. But, Lin made a quick comeback in the game scoring eight points and taking a lead of 9-5. Lin then won seven successive points to throw the former No.1 Indian badminton player out of the race in the second game. Lin levelled the match winning the second game by 9-21.
Final game
In the final game, Lin made a good start and went ahead of Srikanth by 6-2. Srikanth tried his best to make a comeback by levelling the score at 6-6. At 6-6, both the players both players battled hard to get closer to the final.
Both Lin and Srikant went shoulder to shoulder till the points reached 16-16. However, a few consecutive unforced errors from Srikanth meant Lin would win the decider by 18-21. Lin Chun Yi will next face Chou Tien-chen in the final.
Srikanth was the last Indian player to continue his campaign in the Swiss Open. Priyanshu Rajawat and Kiran George were already out of the quarterfinals. Before that, the women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also had to face defeat in the quarterfinals. PV Sindhu's campaign also ended in the second round. With Kidambi Srikanth's exit, India's challenge at the USD 210,000 tournament has ended.