Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
For Quick Alerts
ALLOW NOTIFICATIONS  
For Daily Alerts

All England Open: Srikanth and other Indian stars lambast new service rule

Kidambi Srikanth and other Indian stars like Chirag Shetty come out in the open against the new rule

By Unnikrishnan
Indias Kidambi Srikanth has raised his voice against new service rule in badminton

Birmingham, March 16: Star shuttler Kidambi Srikanth was disappointed after being called for a series of what he termed "ridiculous" service faults during his pre-quarterfinal match against China's Huang Yuxiang at the All England Championship.

World no 3 Srikanth lost 11-21, 21-15, 20-22 to the unseeded Chinese at the Arena Birmingham here in a 52-minute battle on Thursday (March 15) to crash out of the tournament.

ALSO READ: SINDHU, PRANNOY THROUGH. SRIKANTH OUSTED

"There were too many service faults in the opening game. I didn't expect that to happen. Yesterday I didn't get even one, today it was totally changed. That should not happen in a tournament.

"There should be a specific rule. The umpire couldn't find faults yesterday but today the umpire sitting there found too many faults. It is ridiculous," an upset Srikanth said.

India's rising doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty too were on the cusp of pulling off an upset win over second seeded Danish combo of Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen but a few service faults in crucial moment saw them lose 16-21, 21-16, 21-23 in an hour and three minutes.

They were also upset that service faults calls hampered their game.

"It was unfortunate that we got faulted every 2-3 points in the end of the third game, it was crucial times and we were really unlucky," Chirag said.

The BWF is trying out a fixed service rule in all the top tournaments this year.

According to the law: 'The whole shuttle shall be below 1.15 metres from the surface of the court at the instant of being hit by the server's racket.'

Story first published: Friday, March 16, 2018, 11:55 [IST]
Other articles published on Mar 16, 2018