Kidambi Srikanth lost to Chen Long in the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Open in straight games 18-21, 19-21 in the 48-minute contest, to mark an end to the Indian challenge.
The eighth-seeded Indian, who had reached the finals of the India Open last week, had a great advance till the Olympic champion Chen Long of China ousted him in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
Srikanth had a 16-11 advantage in the opening game, while in the second one he fought back brilliantly from 7-11 to 19-19 before losing the game.
The 25-year old had a 1-5 head-to-head record against his opponent, Chen Long whom he had defeated at the 2017 Australian Open.
Chen Long performed good defense against the Indian showing some great moves like shots between-the-legs to keep the spectators engaged at the Kuala Lumpur Sports City.
The first game saw Chen Long slowly taking control of the game even though Srikanth had the head start and with a cross-court return he left him stranded.
The second game saw some simple errors of Srikanth like misjudging line calls, hitting wide and long and also missing shots but still kept breathing down Chen’s neck. The Indian leveled the score with 19-19 when the Chinese hit another long shot and sent one at the backline to move to match point to seal the game.
