BWF world championships 2021: Kidambi Srikanth wins silver; bronze for Lakshya
Singapore’s Loh Kean Yew defeated Kidambi Srikanth of India to win the men’s singles title at the BWF World Championships. After losing the first game of this match, Srikanth fought hard in the second game, but could not win. After losing the first game 21-15, Srikanth lost the second game 22-20 and had to be content with the silver medal. He became the first Indian male player to win a silver medal in this tournament.
After taking the lead at the start of the first set, the former world number 1 couldn’t capitalize and went on to lose the first game 21-15. At the same time, after falling behind in the second game, he made a great comeback but could not change the result of the game and missed out on winning the gold after losing both the sets. In this game that lasted 42 minutes, Srikanth showed his dominance, but could not win. This was the second match between these two players. Earlier, both of them had met in the 2018 Commonwealth Games, when Srikanth defeated the Singapore player in straight sets.
Despite the defeat, Srikanth created history
Even though Srikanth had to face defeat in the final match, he has become the most successful Indian player of this tournament. Srikanth is the first Indian, who played the final of this tournament and won the silver medal. Earlier Prakash Padukone in 1983, and B Sai Praneeth in 2019 had reached the semi-finals of this tournament. Uttarakhand’s Lakshya Sen is the third Indian male player to have won a medal at the BWF World Championships, losing in the semi-finals to Srikanth. Lakshya is the youngest Indian player to win a medal in this tournament.
