Kidambi Srikanth took Silver, and became the first Indian male shuttler to do so at the World Championships, when he lost the closely fought final against Loh Kean Yew 15-21, 20-22 in 43 minutes on Sunday.
In the 2021 World Championship, India won two medals including Srikanth's Silver with Lakshya Sen taking Bronze as well. Srikanth was the first Indian male to make the men's singles final of the competition. Srikanth is ranked 14th in the world in men's singles.
Previously, legendary Prakash Padukone (bronze in 1983) and B Sai Praneeth (bronze in 2019) were the medal winners in men's singles. On the other hand, Loh who came to the tournament as an unseeded player also scripted history. He became the first Singaporean to win the Badminton World Championship.
Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen with their Silver and Bronze medals at the 2021 World Championship.
Image: PTI
Srikanth started off the game with good intensity, taking an early lead of six points as he led Loh Kean Yew 9-3 in the early exchanges of the first game. The Indian was doing far better in terms of holding his nerve on Super Sunday, before Loh bounced back with four straight points.
However, Srikanth didn’t buckle and quickly stretched the lead further, adding a couple of points of his own to make it 11-3 at the break in the first game. The Singaporean, who’s range of strokes had seen him get past some tough opposition in the earlier rounds, fought back strongly after the break, levelling things at 12-12.
From then on in, Loh started to up the tempo and put pressure on his opponent, pushing Srikanth to take more risks in the final stages of the opening game. The Indian was going for the big points and but the error count kept creeping up. Loh eventually won the game at 21-15 and had the momentum on his side.
Srikanth came out in the second game, yet again taking the lead early on, looking to reverse the momentum with some strong play. Both went toe to toe with the Singaporean also doing well to keep Srikanth’s early pressure at bay, keeping things level at 4-4.
A smash allowed Srikanth to surge ahead to 7-5, however a couple of errors soon after made things easier for Loh, with the scores back to level terms at 9-9. Loh picked another couple of points, to make it five in a row, to go to the mid game break at 11-9 and looking in control of proceedings.
The Singaporean then made a few errors of his own as well, allowing Srikanth to edge back into the contest and make it 14-14. That was followed up by a 49-shot rally between the two as neither were willing to concede an inch. The Indian came out on top after the rally, edging ahead at 16-14. The Indian was winning the net battle at the time and kept the two-point lead in the final stages before Loh pulled it back and then attacked his opponent with a strong body smash, to get his nose out in front at 19-18.
With Loh on match point, Srikanth fought back with some great play, levelling scores at 20-20 with a steep smash. However, the late charge wasn’t enough for Srikanth who could not hold his nerve in the pressure moments as Loh pulled ahead and won the game 22-20, taking the World Championship crown after a thrilling final.
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