Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth bowed out of the China Masters 2026 badminton event after dropping his males’s singles quarter-final match in Shenzhen on Friday.
Kidambi Srikanth, thirty fourth within the badminton rankings, misplaced 21-16, 21-16 in opposition to world No. 25 Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong China as India’s singles marketing campaign ended.
After gorgeous two-time BWF World Championships medallist Victor Lai of Canada within the earlier spherical, Srikanth started his quarter-final in opposition to Lee Cheuk Yiu with three straight factors.
Nevertheless, Lee Cheuk Yiu rapidly turned the tables with a seven-point burst to take an 11-6 lead on the interval. The Hong Kong China shuttler continued to dictate play after the break and comfortably wrapped up the opening sport.
The second sport adopted an identical sample, with Kidambi Srikanth racing to a 4-0 lead earlier than Lee levelled the rating and edged forward 11-9 on the interval.
Kidambi Srikanth briefly regained the lead at 15-14, however one other four-point burst from Lee gave him a three-point cushion, which he constructed on to shut out the competition.
World No. 5 duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, nonetheless, ensured that India’s marketing campaign on the BWF Tremendous 750 badminton event continued. The pair beat Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen 21-13, 16-21, 21-18 within the quarter-finals.
The Indian badminton players dominated the primary sport, taking an 11-4 lead on the interval and went on to wrap up the opener with out a lot resistance.
The second sport was a extra neck-to-neck battle, with each pairs tied at 14-14 earlier than Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen received seven of the subsequent 9 factors to pressure a decider.
Satwik-Chirag then rallied from 14-10 and 17-15 down within the decider to show the competition round and seal their place within the semi-finals.
This was Satwik-Chirag’s fifth win in 11 matches in opposition to the Danish duo.
Their China Masters semi-final look will probably be their third last-four end on the 2026 BWF World Tour.
That they had earlier completed runner-up on the Thailand Open and received the Singapore Badminton Open doubles title in Could.
