Our Bureau
Bukit Jalil
India’s Badminton savant, Kidambi Srikanth has moved further in the Malaysia Masters 2025 badminton tournament in Bukit Jalil. This brings delight to all Indian badminton fans as Srikanth now moves to the Semi-finals of the tournaments and stands just two wins away from winning the tournament.
The former world No. 1, Srikanth defeated France’s Toma Junior Popov in the quarterfinals and moved further in the tournament. Srikanth was not the obvious favourite going into the match, he was in fact the underdog as he is currently ranked 65 in the world and he was facing Popov who is ranked 18th in the world currently.
The match was a gritty contest between the two players. They fought tooth and nail for the first game which was eventually won by Srikanth with 24 points to Popov’s 22. Srikanth however couldn’t ride the momentum and lost the second game 17-21. With the game sitting 1-1, both competitors gave it their all but Srikanth stood victorious in a close game ending with 22-20. The game was one of the longest games going around 1 hour 14 minutes.
Both Srikanth and Popov have had their fair share of battles and Srikanth has got the best of his French counterpart in most of the occasions. They have faced each other 6 times and the Indian star has led their scoreboard with 4 victories to Popov’s 2. Srikanth is now going to face Japan’s Yushi Tanaka who is currently ranked 22nd in the world. Tanaka has already beaten one Indian competitor in the tournament, defeating HS Prannoy in the round 16.
This will be Srikanth’s first semi-final appearance in the past year, and he will be yearning to make this one count. Last time Srikanth made the top 4 was back in March 2024 when he played in the Swiss Open Super 300. He is India’s last hope to secure a top 3 spot in the tournament as other players have been defeated and are no longer competing in the tournament.
