Kidambi Srikanth suffered a defeat in the Malaysia Open final in 2025, losing 11-21, 9-21 against Li Shi Feng in China in just 36 minutes on Sunday. Despite a strong race through the tournament, Srikanth was unable to put a real challenge in the confrontation of the title. The 32 -year -old Indian had reached his first BWF final in almost six years, after finishing finalist at Open India in 2019. “It was a very good week. It’s my third tournament. I also played well in the first two, but Srikanth did not really win these games.
“Not exactly as I wanted to be today, but I think he played well (Feng). I’m just very happy to be back again.
In the semi-finals, he overcome the world number 23 of Japan Yushi Tanaka in consecutive matches, 21-18, 24-22, Saturday.
Srikanth, formerly a dominant force in simple male, marked history in 2017 by becoming the first Indian to win four BWF titles during a calendar year -essential the Indonesia Open, the Australian Open, the Denmark Open and the French Open. The following year, he played a central role in the triumph of India gold medal during the team team at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
In this year’s Masters Masters, Srikanth had to go through the qualification towers before defeating the Nhat Nguyen in Ireland in the round of 16. He then exceeded the France Junior Popov Toma in France in a closely disputed quarter-final, 24-22, 17-21, 22-20 and sailed Tanaka to the semester.
However, the final proved to be too far away because Li Shi Feng, which won its first BWF title in 2025 after the victory of the masters of Japan last year, turned out to be too strong.
Once classified among the best in the world, Srikanth has had difficulties in recent years. He missed the Tokyo Olympic Games due to an injury and cancellation of qualifications in the middle of the COVVI-19 pandemic. Persistent ankle injuries have since hampered his consistency, and he had slipped into the world number 65 earlier this month.
Srikanth was also part of the historic victory of the Thomas Cup in India in 2022 in Bangkok, where he helped secure the gold of the team.
(With the exception of the title, this story has not been published by NDTV staff and is published from a unionized flow.)
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