Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth stormed into his first men’s singles final of a BWF event in six years with a straight-game win over Japan’s Yushi Tanaka at the Malaysia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. The 32-year-old, a 2021 World Championships silver medallist, dished out a superlative game, showing glimpses of his vintage self with sharp net play and attacking flair to outwit world number 23 Tanaka 21-18 24-22 in a thrilling contest. “I’m pretty happy. It’s been a while,” Srikanth said after the win.

He will face second seeded Chinese Li Shi Feng in the summit clash on Sunday.

This is Srikanth’s first final appearance on the BWF World Tour since finishing runner-up at the 2019 India Open.

A former world number one, Srikanth – currently ranked 65 – has endured a rough patch over the past few seasons due to form and fitness issues.

“Physically I’ve been feeling well, but also the fact that I haven’t played too many matches last year, playing qualifying, so may be kind of lost that touch of playing matches. And yeah, somehow everything worked out this time.

“I’ve been working hard last month. It’s just these wins, after a very long time, that is what has been my emotions,” he added.

A naturally gifted player, Srikanth became the first Indian to win four BWF titles in 2017 and then led the country to its first-ever Commonwealth Games gold in the team event.

But his struggles began soon after. Though he seemed in good touch in 2019, Srikanth missed the Tokyo Olympics due to a combination of injuries and the cancellation of qualifiers owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He continued to suffer minor injuries, particularly ankle-related ones, which affected his consistency. He recovered in time to become the first Indian male shuttler to reach the finals of the 2021 World Championships in Spain.

He also played a pivotal role in India’s historic Thomas Cup triumph in 2022, winning all six of his matches, before fading again.

Srikanth had reached the quarterfinals at the Thailand Open Super 300 earlier this year, while his last semifinal appearances came at the Swiss Open and Macau Open in 2023.

Over the past three months, however, he underwent intense training sessions, focused on fitness, and worked on injecting pace into rallies under the watchful eyes of coaches RMV Gurusaidutt and Parupalli Kashyap.

Asked about his plans going forward, Srikanth said: “I haven’t really planned anything. It’s just about being physically fit, being injury-free, and then playing as many tournaments as possible. I don’t really have a target of playing the next tournaments this year.

“So it’s just about training and being physically fit and obviously if I play, I will obviously play to win. I really want to give myself enough time to recover, to train, and then play this time.” In the opening game, Srikanth committed a few errors while trying to counter Tanaka’s pace and trailed 1-5.

With some fine straight slices and round-the-head smashes, the Indian closed the gap, but the Japanese kept a five-point cushion with a crisp cross smash.

Srikanth gradually constructed rallies and forced errors from the diminutive Japanese to make it 8-9, though Tanaka held a three-point lead at the break.

The Indian levelled at 14-all and surged to 19-16 lead with a superb cross-court return. A down-the-line smash earned him two game points, and he converted to take the opener.

Tanaka again started strongly in the second game, leading 3-0 and 7-2 as Srikanth missed a few chances.

But like in the first game, Srikanth responded with aggression, narrowing the deficit to 8-9 and levelling scores with a sharp net kill.

Tanaka made soft errors as Srikanth moved ahead 13-10, but the Japanese fought back to make it 17 all.

After an intense battle, Srikanth earned a match point off a net error, but Tanaka saved it to leave the scores level at 20-20.

A tight net shot gave Srikanth a second match point, but Tanaka’s quick return made it 22 all. A backhand push from Srikanth caught the line, and he sealed the match as Tanaka hit wide.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)