India’s Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the men’s singles semi-finals at the Swiss Open 2024 badminton tournament at the St. Jakobshalle arena in Basel, Switzerland on Friday.
Meanwhile, Priyanshu Rajawat and Kiran George bowed out in the quarter-finals.
Srikanth secured a comfortable 21-10, 21-14 victory over world No. 34 Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei to qualify for his first semi-final on the BWF World Tour since November 2022. He made the top four at the Hylo Open two years back before losing to Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
The former world No. 1 Indian badminton player hardly had to break a sweat in Basel on Friday and wrapped up the encounter in 35 minutes.
Srikanth, who won the Swiss Open in 2015, will now face world No. 22 Lin Chun Yi of Chinese Taipei in the semi-finals on Saturday.
With his Paris 2024 Olympics qualification still hanging in the balance and the Indian men’s team to take part in the Thomas Cup set to be selected soon, this run at the Swiss Open will make a compelling case for him.
For Priyanshu Rajawat and Kiran George, however, their Swiss Open campaigns came to an end in the quarter-finals. Rajawat went down 15-21, 19-21 at the hands of fifth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.
The 22-year-old Rajawat started the match well but ended up losing in straight games inside 43 minutes.
Similarly, Kiran George also bowed out from the men’s singles quarter-finals after suffering a 23-21, 17-21, 15-21 loss to Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke in an hour and 14 minutes.
Earlier in the day, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand were knocked out of the women’s doubles category after a 21-14, 21-14 straight games loss to Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu of Australia.
Treesa and Gayatri looked far from comfortable against their lower-ranked opponents and the quarter-final exit in Switzerland follows their early exit from the All England Open last week.