Srikanth into Malaysia Masters 2025 semifinal; Kapila/Crasto knocked out
Kidambi Srikanth entered the semifinal after beating Toma Junior Popov in the quarterfinals of the Malaysia Masters 2025 in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
Srikanth, currently ranked 65th but a former world no. 1 and World Championships and Asian Games silver medallist, clinched the hard-fought first game 24-22 before his French opponent bounced back to grab the second 17-21.
The decider saw the two battle it out before the Indian emerged on top, winning the game 22-20 in a fierce contest that lasted one hour and 14 minutes.
The 32-year-old will face Yushi Tanaka in the semifinal on Saturday — the Japanese player had beaten H. S. Prannoy in the Round of 16 and took down Christo Popov, brother of Toma Junior, 21-18, 16,-21 21-6 in another men’s singles quarterfinal duel.
The other men’s singles semifinal will be played between fourth seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan and second seed Li Shi Feng of China.
Srikanth is now the lone surviving Indian in the BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament after the exit of the mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Kapila and Crasto gave top-seed Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin of China a tough fight in the first game but lost steam in the next to bow out 22-24 13-21 in a 35-minute affair.
(With inputs from PTI)