Kidambi, Sameer knocked out of Korea Masters

Gwangju (South Korea): Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma crashed out of the Korea Masters after suffering straight-games defeat in their respective second-round clashes on Thursday.

Japan's Kanta Tsuneyama, who was facing Srikanth for the first time, defeated the sixth-seeded Indian 21-14, 21-19 in just 37 minutes.

Tsuneyama took the first game comfortably, winning six consecutive points at one stage to surge ahead of Srikanth. The Indian shuttler failed to threaten in the second game as well after he conceded a four-point lead to the Japanese and failed to recover from that before eventually getting knocked out of the tournament.

Srikanth had defeated Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-18 21-17 in the first round. The 26-year-old has struggled for form since reaching the final of the India Open in March.

Meanwhile, Sameer also lost his Round of 16 match to South Korea's Kim Donghun 21-19, 21-12 in 39 minutes. Sameer also showed good skills in the first game but could not match to Donghun who won the game. In the second game, the Indian shuttler failed to give any competition to the South Korean and bowed out of the competition rather easily.

With the losses, the Indian challenge has come to an end in the tournament.