The former number one Indian Naveter, Kidambi Srikanth, failed to qualify for the main round of the open in 2025 of Thailand when he left the tournament with a defeat in his second match in qualifying on Tuesday. In the first qualifying series, the world championship silver medalist, ousted Sankar Subramanian 21-15, 21-17 but lost in the second against Tharun Mannepalli 21-15, 21-17. During his last eight outings, Srikanth, ranked 71st as a simple male, only managed one appearance in the quarterfinals, highlighting its turbulent phase. Last year, he made only one appearance in the semi-finals after participating in 14 tournaments.
Tharun, ranked 53rd, was the only Indian to pass the qualifications. He will continue the challenge of India in the main draw, which starts on Wednesday. Before surpassing Srikanth, Tharun beat Kuo Kuan Lin of Chinese Taipei 17-21, 21-19, 21-17 in the closely disputed opener.
Ayush Shetty, who stormed the semi-finals of the Taipei Open Super 300 last week, opened his account with a dominant victory of 21-10, 21-11 against Joakim Oldorff in Finland. However, during his second match in qualifying, the 20-year-old lost to the tournament after a defeat of 21-14, 22-20 against Justin Hoh of Malaysia. The campaign of Sathish Karunakaran also ended after a defeat of 17-21, 21-12, 21-12 against Aidil Sholeh of Malaysia.
In the women’s singles category, Ira Sharma organized a flawless return to defeat Thet Hthar Htuzar 18-21, 21-8, 21-12 in his first match. However, she could not take her winning momentum against Thamonwan Nithiittikrai in Thailand and lost by 21-12, 21-18 in the second.
The only pair of mixed doubles in India in qualifying, Mohit Jaglan and Lakshita Jaglan, collapsed from the tournament with a defeat against Chan Yin Chak and Ng Tsz Yau of Hong Kong China 21-8, 21-10.
On Wednesday, Lakshya Sen, the semi-finalist of men in the single of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the duo of double female number 10 Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly and the Monteante Unnati Hooda feeling will take the court.
(With the exception of the title, this story has not been published by NDTV staff and is published from a unionized flow.)
Subjects mentioned in this article
