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Indian ace shuttler Kidambi Srikanth faced an exit from the ongoing Hong Kong Open after he was handed a straight sets defeat at the hands of eighth-seeded Kenta Nishimoto on Friday, November 16.
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The Hyderabad shuttler lost 17-21, 13-21 against the Japanese in a match that lasted for 44 minutes. This means that the former World no 1 is yet to win a title this year.
En route to the quarter-finals, Srikanth had defeated compatriot HS Prannoy in all men’s clash.
Also read: Hong Kong Open: PV Sindhu advance to pre-quarters; Saina Nehwal crash out
Srikanth, who had a terrific 2017 wherein he won four Super Series titles in a Year which made him only the fourth Indian to do so in history, is now no longer in the contention for a berth in BWF World Tour Finals.
The match began on an even note with both gaining leads over the other. In the first game, Nishimoto started accelerating when the score was locked at 5-5 as he gained four consecutive points and started to lead his Indian opponent.
This was too tough a blow for Srikanth to handled who eventually lost the first game 17-21.
If his defeat in the first game wasn’t enough to speak of the dominance of the Japanese, the second game removed all doubts over the fact that the contest between the two wasn’t an equal one, with Nishimoto easily being the better player.
After a loss in the first game, Srikanth, bidding for a comeback fell behind once again and even trailed 4-15 at one point of time.
But even though he gathered some points to narrow down this gap, the lead was eventually too much for him to reduce as he eventually slumped to a 13-21 loss.
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