Kuala Lumpur, May 24 (IANS) Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth advanced to his first men’s singles final at a BWF event in six years with a straight-game victory over Japan’s Yushi Tanaka at the Malaysia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament on Saturday.

The 32-year-old, a silver medallist at the 2023 World Championships, produced a stellar performance, displaying flashes of his vintage form with sharp net play and aggressive shot-making to overcome world No. 23 Tanaka 21-18, 24-22 in a gripping encounter.

This marks Srikanth’s first BWF World Tour final appearance since he finished runner-up at the 2019 India Open. His last title came in 2017, a year which saw him lift four silverwares.

Once ranked world No. 1, Srikanth has slipped to 65th in the rankings, having battled a dip in form and fitness in recent years.

Expressing his excitement of reaching the final after a six-year hiatus, Srikanth said, “Pretty happy”.

“Physically I’ve been feeling well, but also the fact that I haven’t played tonight or this last year, playing qualifying, so maybe kind of lost that touch of playing matches. Somehow everything works well this time.

“I haven’t really planned anything. It’s just about being physically fit, being injury free, and then playing how many hours it’s possible. I don’t really have a target of playing when it’s done, so it’s just about training and being physically fit and then playing.

“Obviously, if I played, I would have just played a bit. So, I really want to give myself enough time to recover, to train, and then play this time,” Srikanth added.

Srikanth will now take on China’s Li Shi Feng in the final on Sunday. The head-to-head record between the two players favours the Chinese with three wins in four encounters.

–IANS

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