Kuala Lumpur: Seasoned Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth stormed into his first semifinal in over a year with a hard-fought three-game win over higher-ranked Toma Junior Popov of France at the Malaysia Masters badminton tournament here on Friday.
Ranked 65th in the world, Srikanth displayed remarkable resilience and tactical maturity to outwit world No.18 Popov 24-22 17-21 22-20 in a fiercely-contested quarterfinal that lasted one hour and 14 minutes.
The 32-year-old from Guntur, a 2021 World Championships silver medallist, has endured a rough patch over the past few seasons, struggling with form and fitness.
However, he battled through the qualifiers and has now notched up five straight wins to reach the business end of a BWF World Tour event.
“It’s been a while since I’ve won this many matches in a tournament and I hope I can continue to do so,”
said Srikanth.
“I’ve always been trying to better myself and this win just proves that whatever I’m doing is working,” added the former world No.1, who had won four titles in a stellar 2017 season and was part of India’s historic Thomas Cup triumph in 2022.
Srikanth will take on Yushi Tanaka of Japan in the last four match, which will be his first semifinal appearance in over a year.
The Japanese, who has won two Super 300 titles -- the Orleans Masters and the U.S. Open -- beat France’s Christo Popov, brother of Toma Junior, 21-18 16-21 21-6 in another men’s singles quarterfinal duel on Saturday.
The other men’s singles semifinal will be played between fourth seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan and second seed Li Shi Feng of China. Srikanth is now the lone surviving Indian in the BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament.