Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth surprised two-time BWF World Championships medallist Victor Lai to enter males’s singles quarter-finals on the China Masters 2026 badminton match in Shenzhen on Thursday.
India’s Kidambi Srikanth, thirty fourth within the badminton rankings, beat Canada’s world No. 9 Victor Lai 21-18, 21-19 within the second spherical.
Kidambi trailed 7-3 early on earlier than combating again to degree the opening sport at 8-8. The Canadian edged forward to guide 15-11, however the Indian responded with 5 successive factors, shifting to 18-16 and sealing the opener on his second sport level.
Within the second sport, Kidambi Srikanth initially trailed once more at 14-9, however mounted one other comeback to degree at 18-18 earlier than holding his nerve to shut out the competition in straight video games.
Nevertheless, India’s girls’s singles marketing campaign on the BWF Tremendous 750 badminton match got here to an finish after Tanvi Sharma misplaced 21-17, 18-21, 21-16 towards Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki.
Within the opening sport, Tanvi Sharma and Tomoka Miyazaki have been locked at 7-7 earlier than the Japanese shuttler reeled off 9 consecutive factors to grab management.
Tanvi Sharma then fought again to chop the deficit to 18-17, however Tomoka Miyazaki received the following three factors to clinch the opener.
The second sport noticed Tanvi Sharma race to an 8-2 lead earlier than Tomoka Miyazaki discovered her rhythm to shut the hole to 11-10 on the interval.
The Indian badminton player then shifted gears after the break, mentioning 5 sport factors earlier than changing her fourth to win the sport and drive a decider
The decider was simply as tightly contested, with the scores tied at 11-11 earlier than Tomoka Miyazaki produced a decisive five-point burst to open up a four-point cushion en path to sealing the win.
Elsewhere, world No. 5 duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty of India progressed to the lads’s doubles quarter-finals after a 21-17, 22-24, 21-9 win over Christo Popov and Toma Junior Popov of France.
In the meantime, India’s blended doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Olympian Tanisha Crasto misplaced their second spherical match 21-18, 21-18 towards Liu Kuang-Heng and Hsu Yin-Hui of the Chinese language Taipei.