After an inspiring performance by India's women shuttlers -- P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal -- the men failed to deliver in the ongoing World Badminton Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia. Kidambi Srikanth and H S Prannoy have been knocked out of the competition after losing to Hu Yun and Viktor Axelsen in the pre-quarters respectively.
With both the Indian players losing their respective fixtures, India's run in the men's singles have come to a sad end. Another Indian shuttler, Parupalli Kashyap had lost in the previous round of the competition.
However, Srikanth and Prannoy need to be credited for putting up an impressive performance in the pre-quarters. Third seed Kashyap must consider himself unlucky after winning the first two sets, but Hu Yun proved to be too good for the Indian and won the next two sets. The game ended with the score of 14-21, 21-17 and 23-21.
As Hu Yun found his rhythm in the second and the third set, Srikanth, despite playing some quality badminton, was outdone. The third set turned out to be a dramatic affair with both the players not giving an inch to the other as Yun prevailed 23-21. The match results might have turned out negatively for Indian fans, but the neutrals must have enjoyed the high quality show put up by both the shuttlers.
H S Prannoy also showed superb character to come from a set down to win the second set and take the game to a decider, where the shuttler from Denamrk, Axelsen played a brilliant game to hand Prannoy his yet another defeat.
Despite Axelsen's poor service game, Prannoy could not make it count as he faltered with the score of 21-16, 19-21 and 21-18.
