India’s campaign at the Singapore Open Super 750 event came to an end on Thursday, with defeats for Srikanth Kidambi and Priyanshu Rajawat in men’s singles and Dhruv Kapila-MR Arjun in men’s doubles.
It capped a forgettable week for Indian shuttlers in Singapore.
Srikanth Kidambi, perhaps the most likely on paper to make a deep run this week, was at the receiving end of a massive fightback by Chinese Taipei’s Chia Hao Lee who won 21-15 21-19. The opening game saw the world No 42, promoted to the main draw in place of the injured Viktor Axelsen, take off 10-9 on his way to clinching the opening game.
The second game, however, saw Srikanth regain control and he was on the verge of forcing the decider. The former World No 1 opened up a 19-12 lead and was two points away but Chia fought back thanks to a combination of errors from the Indian and good attacking play from himself. On a run of nine straight points, Chia clinched the match in straight games.
Earlier in the day, world No 37 Rajawat showed glimpses of why he is highly rated as he produced some fine rallies in the contest against Kodai Naraoka. But the world No 4 from Japan did enough to win the match in straight games, 21-17 21-16.
Two of Rajawat’s biggest wins so far have come against top-15 Japanese players but this was always going to be a step above. The Indian started well thought, but for a few errors that he’d have liked to cut out. The fast-rising Japanese shuttler however took the lead from the tougher side, showing great control. The second game too followed similar patterns as Rajawat did well to go from 9-17 down to 15-18. But Naraoka held on to his lead.
In between these two singles defeats, Dhruv-Arjun too lost in straight games against England’s Ben Lane and Sean Vendy. It started off as a fairly even match but Lane-Vendy pushed ahead after the interval to take the opening game 21-15 against Dhruv-Arjun.
The second game saw much more competitive badminton, including this fabulous rally that gave the Indians a lead at the mid-game interval.
But once again, post interval the English pair (world No 18) closed the gap down and made it 17-17. Lane and Vendy then held their nerves to close the match out in straight games.
Next up for Indians is the Super 1000 event next week at the Indonesia Open.
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