Kidambi Srikanth's winning run at the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament came to an end after a semi-final loss to Chinese Taipei's Lin Chun-Yi, in Basel, on Saturday night.
The former world No. 1 squandered a one-game lead and went down 21-15, 9-21, 18-21 in a gruelling contest that lasted 65 minutes.
The defeat ended India's challenge at the US $210,000 tournament.
The match marked Srikanth's first semi-final appearance in 16 months. He last reached the last four stage at the Hylo Open in November 2022.
After taking the opening game, the Indian ace raced to a 4-1 lead in the second. However, errors crept into the 2021 World Championships silver medallist's game. Srikanth lost the momentum and went down tamely in the next game, forcing the decider.
He did get regain the rhythm in the decider with not much separating the two shuttlers and took a slender lead at the interval.
At 16-16, Lin snatched a three-point lead. Srikanth cut down the deficit but nerves got the better of him and he ultimately succumbed.
