Indian badminton star Kidmabi Srikanth pulls off two stunning comebacks against Thai starlet Kunlavut Vitidsarn to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Malaysia Masters 2023. In Kula Lumpur, the Indian contingent had near perfect Day 3 with three out of the four competitors going through with stellar results.
Coming back to Srikanth’s match, the Indian shuttler was put under early pressure with some quality by the World Number 5, who took a 6-0 lead. Then with the Hyderabad native finding some form, he managed to cut short Vitidsarn’s to 12-10 before once again falling back to 16-13. Srikanth here fit overdrive and zoomed to 19-19 in the next nine minutes and completed a great comeback to win the first game in 45 minutes.
Similarly in Game 2, the World number 23 went down 4-0 and needed another comeback to clinch the fixture. So, Srikanth tried finding a few quick points but cut short the gap as Vitidsarn soared forward. But at the 18-minute mark, Srikanth drew level at 9-9 before the cat-and-mouse game continued as the Thai international broke ahead.
The scores once again levelled at 12-12 but then Kunlavut Vitidsarn leapt to an 18-13 lead. Nearly down out, Kidmabi Srikanth turned on his afterburners and replicated his late run from Game 1 to make the score 19 all before scoring two consecutive points and sealing his quarter-final qualification with a thunderous smash.
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Talking about the other Indian players, HS Pranoy and P.V. Sindhu had great results and registered wins while Lakhsya Sen crashed out early. Sindhu took down Japanese Aya Ohori in straight games while Pranoy defeated China’s LI Shi Feng 13-21, 21-16, 21-11. But for Lakshya Sen, the former world junior no. 1 suffered a big 14-21, 19-21 loss against Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka Long.
