Kidambi Srikanth makes semi-final exit in Swiss Open, loses to Lin Chun-Yi

Kidambi Srikanth’s winning run at the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament was brought to an end in the semi-final by Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-Yi in Basel on Saturday.

The former World No. 1 squandered a game lead to go down 21-15, 9-21, 18-21 in a gruelling contest that lasted an hour and five minutes.

With the loss, India’s challenge at the $210,000 tournament has ended.

The match marked Srikanth’s first last-four appearance of a tournament in 16 months. He had last reached the semis stage at the Hylo Open in November 2022.

After taking the opening game, Srikanth took an early 4-1 lead in the second game.

However, errors started to creep into the 2021 World Championships silver medallist’s game and Srikanth lost the momentum to go down tamely with Lin forcing a decider.

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Srikanth got his rhythm back in the deciding game with not much separating the two shuttlers.

The Indian managed to take a slender lead at the interval.

At 16-16, Lin managed to lead away building a three point gap. Srikanth cut down the deficit but the nerves got the better of him, leading to the defeat.