Shezhen

Veteran Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth stunned world No. 9 Victor Lai of Canada in straight games to enter the men's singles quarterfinals of the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament here on Thursday.

The 33-year-old Srikanth, who had reached the US Open Super 300 final earlier this year, rallied his way to notch up an upset 21-18 21-19 win over Lai, who won his second World Championships bronze in New Delhi last month.

A former world No. 1 and 2021 World Championships silver-medallist, Srikanth will face Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu in his next match.

In women's singles, Tanvi Sharma, who won the Taipei Open World Tour Super 300 title recently, showed gumption to fight but imploded at the back end to go down 17-21 21-18 16-21 to world No. 9 Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan in the second round.

India's Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto also bowed out after losing 18-21, 18-21 to Chinese Taipei's Liu Kuang Heng and Hsu Yin Hui in mixed doubles.

Srikanth vs Lai

Srikanth showed his ability to fight and rained down thunderous jump smashes to telling effect.

After an initial 3-3 start, Srikanth fell behind 3-7 but recovered to 8-8 as Lai committed a series of unforced errors.

The Canadian, who won his maiden Super 1000 title in Indonesia this year, went into the interval with a two-point cushion.

Lai seemed to find his rhythm as he cramped Srikanth with his smashes to move to 15-11.

However, the veteran Indian pushed one to the backline, followed it up with a jump-smash winner and then outwitted his rival at the net. Lai sprayed one into the net as it became 15-15.

Another cross-court smash took the Indian to 18-16. Srikanth soon grabbed three game points with a net shot and sealed it on his second chance when Lai found the net again.

After the change of sides, Srikanth was again lagging but kept breathing down his rival's neck.

Srikanth fell 5-9 behind after a series of unforced errors.

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Left to do the catching up act again, Srikanth kept fighting. From 9-14, two smashes from Srikanth and a couple of net errors from his rival helped the Indian make it 13-14. An attacking cross-court return made it 14-15 as Srikanth kept snapping at his rival's feet.

He soon clawed back to 18-18. Lai then went long and Srikanth sent one into the forehand corner to earn match points. The Canadian sprayed wide again as Srikanth pumped his fist after sealing the win.