Korea Masters: Indian challenge ends as Srikanth and Sameer crash out

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Gwangju (Korea), November 21: Indian challenge at the Korea Masters ended after Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma crashed out of the BWF Tour Tournament in Gwangju, Korea on Thursday (November 21).

Srikanth suffered a straight games 14-21, 19-21 defeat to Japan's Kanta Tsuneyama. And the Japanese shuttler, who met Srikanth for the first time needed only 37 minutes to knock the Indian out.

Tsuneyama took the first game comfortably, winning six consecutive points at one stage to surge ahead of Srikanth.

Srikanth failed to capialize a four-point lead in the second game as well and failed to recover from that before eventually getting knocked out of the tournament.

In the opening round, Srikanth had defeated Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-18 21-17. The 26-year-old has struggled for form since reaching the final of the India Open in March.

Meanwhile, Sameer also lost his second round match to South Korea's Kim Donghun 21-19, 21-12 in 39 minutes. Sameer showed good fight in the first game but could not match Donghun who won the match after the Indian failed to show any resitance in the second game.

Both Srikanth and Sameer will look to bounce back when they take the court at home for the Syed Modi International Badminton Championships, which is scheduled to start next week in Lucknow.

(With inputs from agencies)