India is assured of at least a silver as Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen will face each other in the first semi-final on Saturday.
In a historic first for Indian badminton, two men’s singles players were assured of a medal in the ongoing BWF World Championships in Huelva, Spain. Kidambi Srikanth defeated Mark Caljouw to storm into the semi-finals while Lakshya Sen had to grind out the victory against China’s Zhao Juan Peng in the quarter-final clash. India is assured of at least a silver as Srikanth and Lakshya will face each other in the first semi-final on Saturday. Meanwhile India’s HS Prannoy lost his quarter-final match against Singapore’ Loh Kean Yew.
Exceptional ???
India’s Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen have made the semi-finals of the ongoing BWF World Championships 2021, assuring themselves of a medal.
?: @badmintonphoto#Badminton | #BWFWorldChampionships | #Huelva2021 pic.twitter.com/idyvzBrM5s
— Olympic Khel (@OlympicKhel) December 17, 2021
Srikanth thrashed the Durch shuttler by 21-8, 21-7 in a contest that lasted for just 26 minutes. With this win, Srikanth confirmed his first ever World Championship medal. The former world No. 1 shuttler raced a 11-5 lead in the first mid-game interval. The seeded 12th Indian was looking sharp and closed the first game at 21-8. Srikanth continued his dominance in the second game also and finished the contest by securing the game 21-7.
Lakshya on the other hand had a tough battle against Zhao and had to dig deep to secure a place in the last 4. The 20-year-old Indian played a fearless and attacking brand of badminton to confirm his first world championship medal. Battling at court 2, Lakshya went past the Chinese shuttler by 21-15, 15-21, 22-20 in a titanic one hour and seven minutes.clash.
Also read: PV Sindhu crashes out of BWF World Championships after loss to Tai Tzu Ying
Lakshya Sen beat Zhao Juan Peng: 21-15, 15-21, 22-20
Kidambi Srikanth beat Mark Caljouw: 22-20, 21-12
Anders Antonsen beat Lee Zii Jia: 12-21, 21-18, 11-1 (retired)
Loh Kean Yew beat HS Prannoy: 21-14, 21-12
Lakshya Sen VS Kidambi Srikanth
Anders Antonsen VS Loh Kean Yew
The matches would be streamed live on BWF’s Youtube channel. The matches will start from 9 AM Madrid Time, which is 1:30 PM IST.
Star Sports 2, Star Sports 2 HD and star Sports 3 TV stations in India, as well as Disney+ Hotstar, will broadcast the BWF World Championship 2021 Live.
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