Kidambi Srikanth missed the title. (Photo- PTI)
US Open Badminton 2026 Final: India’s experienced shuttler Kidambi Srikanth had to face defeat in the final of the US Open Super 300 badminton tournament. In a grueling and tough match, 33-year-old Srikanth was defeated by Chinese Taipei player Su Li-Yang in a three-game struggle. With this defeat, former world number-1 Srikanth’s dream of winning his first title of the season was shattered and he had to be content with becoming the runner-up. In this match that lasted for more than an hour, Srikanth lost 15-21, 21-16, 9-21.
Umpire’s decision spoiled the rhythm in the first game
Srikanth showed good pace in the beginning of the match, but a mistake during the initial rallies spoiled his rhythm. Actually, while trying to play a shot over the net, her racket went beyond the net, after this unforced mistake, Su continued to collect points and took a lead of 7-2. Srikanth made a brilliant comeback by winning 8 out of the next 11 points to level the score at 10-10 and even took a slight lead of 11-10 till the mid-game break. However, after the break, the Chinese Taipei player increased the pace of the rallies and forced Srikanth to make mistakes and took a lead of 17-12. Ultimately Su won the game 21-15 in 17 minutes.
Srikanth counterattacks, returns after winning the second game
In the second game, a tough competition was seen between the two players. After the tie of 4-4, Srikanth took the lead of 7-4 by taking three consecutive points. Su leveled the score at 8-8, but Srikanth remained ahead 11-8 till the break due to his excellent net play. After the break, the Chinese Taipei player hit some powerful smashes, but Srikanth did not lose patience and took the score to 18-13. After some more mistakes from Su, Srikanth got seven game points. Although Su saved three game points, Srikanth hit a powerful down-the-line smash to win the second game 21-16 and take the match to the third game.
Su’s one-sided dominance in the third game
In the last game, Su Li-Yang adopted a very aggressive stance from the beginning and took a 4-1 lead by continuously hitting accurate smashes. Srikanth did play some good shots, but he also kept making mistakes, due to which Su went ahead 11-7 at the break. Then Su increased his lead to 15-7 and then 18-8. Srikanth’s shots kept going out of the court, due to which Su got 12 championship points. Srikanth did save one point, but in the very next rally, Su won the point and won the match. This is the first BWF World Tour title of Su Li-Yang’s career. At the same time, this was the first final of the season for Srikanth.
