India’s Kidambi Srikanth cruises to semi-finals of Malaysia Masters 2025

BUKIT JALIL: Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth registered win over France’s Toma Junior Popov in the quarterfinals and progressed to the semi-finals of the Malaysia Masters 2025 badminton tournament in Bukit Jalil, as reported by Olympics.com.

Currently ranked 65th in the badminton rankings, Srikanth came from behind in the decider to register a gritty 24-22, 17-21, 22-20 win over world No. 18 Popov in a match that lasted one hour and 14 minutes on Friday.

This will be Srikanth’s first semi-final appearance of the year. His last top-four finish on the BWF World Tour was at the Swiss Open Super 300 in March 2024.

The Indian badminton player made a brisk start, surging to a 7-4 lead in the opening game, only for Popov to claw his way back.

It was the French shuttler who held a game point opportunity at 21-20, but Srikanth turned the tide to snatch the opener.

Srikanth trailed by four points at the break in the second game. He drew level at 15-15 but lost steam as the match went into the decider.
Srikanth was also four points behind his opponent in the third midgame break of the match, but this time, he mounted an inspiring comeback to seal the contest. It was his fourth win over Toma Junior Popov from six meetings.

Kidambi Srikanth, who defeated Ireland’s world No. 33 Nhat Nguyen in the round of 16, will face world No. 22 Yushi Tanaka of Japan in the semi-finals on Saturday. Tanaka had beaten HS Prannoy in his round of 16 match.

Meanwhile, it was the end of the road for India’s mixed doubles pair of Paris 2024 Olympian Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila. The Indian badminton players went down 22-24, 13-21 in their quarter-finals against the People’s Republic of China’s Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin, bronze medallists from the 2023 World Championships.

Srikanth is now the only Indian challenge left at the BWF Super 500 tournament. (ANI)