On Wednesday, Indian Badminton stars Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma were knocked out in the first round of the Thailand Badminton Open. Srikanth was defeated by Shesar Hiren Rhustavito of Indonesia 21-12, 14-21, 12-21 in the BMF World Tour Super-300 category. The match played in Bangkok lasted 48 minutes. Srikanth, who is currently at the 23rd spot in BWF's Race to Tokyo rankings for Olympic qualification has got his 2020 Tokyo Olympics hopes further dented. This is the third consecutive tournament in which World No-5 Srikanth knocked out in the first round.
At the same time, Sameer was defeated by Malaysia's Li Ji Jia 16-21, 15-21 in straight sets. The match ended in 39 minutes. At the same time, Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy will start their journey in this tournament. Later in the day, Saina Nehwal takes on Denmark's Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt in the first round as she looks to keep her Tokyo dreams alive.
