Denmark Open: Kidambi Srikanth was knocked out of the tournament after losing the men's singles quarter-finals clash against Chou Tien Chen
Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the quarterfinals of the Denmark Open with a straight-game win over Jason Anthony Ho-Shue on Thursday.
Kidambi Srikanth beat Toby Penty 21-12 21-18 in 37 minutes, as badminton finally got going after the long coronavirus-forced hiatus.
The BAI had on Tuesday written to the players who sent their entries for the Denmark Open, stating that they would be "travelling or participating at their own responsibility due to the current pandemic".
Top singles players such as Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth will finally resume training from Monday as the Sports Authority of India (SAI) gave its go-ahead to the national badminton camp at the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad under strict COVID-19 guidelines.
Parupalli Kashyap, a former world no.6, insisted that he too has an outside chance of qualifying for the Tokyo Games but he has no way to pursue it as he can't train at the camp.
With the dates for the Indian Premier League 2020 all but finalised, badminton star Kidambi Srikanth is waiting to see MS Dhoni play again.
The Badminton Association of India on Friday recommended Kidambi Srikanth for the Khel Ratna and show-caused HS Prannoy for slamming the federation after not being nominated for the Arjuna honour.
Top players including India's Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap and HS Prannoy have all been openly critical of the BWF for going through with tournaments.
Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of the All England Open badminton championships after losing 15-21, 16-21 to China's Chen Long in first round.
Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, Ashwini Ponnappa, N Sikki Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra will be participating in the tournament
PV Sindhu will open her campaign against Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi and is expected to face seventh seed Michelle Li of Canada in the quarterfinals.
Saina Nehwal secured a straight game win over Ukraine's Maria Ulitina to storm into the women's singles quarterfinals.
Kidambi Srikanth will now face Ajay Jayaram as he races against time to secure qualification to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by improving his world ranking.
Saina Nehwal and Kidmabi Srikanth are currently ranked 18th and 15th respectively, while being placed 22nd and 26th in the 'Race to Tokyo' rankings.
The Indian men's team lost their first two games before coming back to win the tie 3-2 against Thailand.
Kidambi Srikanth beat Dmitriy Panarin 21-10, 21-7 while Lakshya beat Artur Niyazov 21-13, 21-8.
The Indian men's Badminton team will look to win medals to secure crucial ranking points ahead of the Olympics.
