Indian challenge at Thailand Masters badminton ends

Former world No.1 Kidambi Srikanth and Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian crashed out of the Thailand Masters Super 300 badminton tournament as the Indian challenge ended in Bangkok on Friday.

While Srikanth lost 17-21, 16-21 to sixth seed Zheng Xing Wang of China, former world junior No.1 Subramanian gave a tough fight to another Chinese, Xuan Chen Zhu, before losing 21-19, 18-21, 13-21 in 70 minutes.

Later in the day, the eighth seeded Indian men's doubles pair of Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy and K Sai Pratheek lost 19-21, 18-21 to second seeds Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Daniel Marthin of Indonesia.

Young Rakshitha Ramraj also couldn't cross the quarter-final hurdle, going down fighting 21-19, 14-21 9-21 to Thailand's Thamonwan Nithiittikrai.