Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth cruises into second round of Canada Open 2025

Ontario [Canada], July 3 (ANI): Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth defeated his compatriot Kidambi Srikanth and marched into the second round of the Canada Open 2025 badminton tournament in Ontario on Wednesday.
Kidambi Srikanth, currently 49th in the badminton rankings, lost the opening game against compatriot Priyanshi Rajawat but rallied back to win the 53-minute contest 18-21, 21-19, 21-14 at the Markham Pan Am Centre, as per Olympics.com.
Former world No. 1 Srikanth had lost both his matches against Rajawat, the seventh seed and world No. 39, prior to this.
Srikanth's opponent in the pre-quarterfinals will be Chinese Taipei's world No. 71 Wang Po-Wei, who upset Malaysia's Justin Hoh in the opening round.
Meanwhile, world No. 31 and fifth seed Ayush Shetty, fresh off his title win at the US Open last week, failed to replicate a similar run in Ontario as he was ousted in the opening round by fellow Indian badminton player Sankar Subramanian.
Muthusamy, ranked 57th, took 44 minutes to emerge as the winner by a 23-21, 21-12 scoreline and will go up against Chinese Taipei's Huang Yu Kai in the next round.
Meanwhile, Shriyanshi Valishetty was the only Indian shuttler who managed to cross the opening round hurdle in women's singles at the BWF Super 300 tournament.
The world No. 75 Valishetty upset Ukraine's seventh seed Polina Buhrova, ranked 37th in the world, 21-18, 22-20 in 40 minutes. Interestingly, it was Buhrova who had knocked out the Indian in the opening round at the US Open last week.
Valishetty will square off against Malaysia's Letshanaa Karupathevan next.
Meanwhile, Tanya Hemnath and qualifier Ira Sharma both crashed out after suffering losses.
Hemnath pushed the third-seeded Chinese Taipei player Sung Shuo-yun hard but eventually lost 15-21, 24-22, 21-18. Ira went down against Kaloyana Nalbantova of Bulgaria 21-9, 21-14.
Mixed doubles top seeds Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto also bowed out after losing 21-15, 21-19 to the Spanish pair of Ruben Garcia and Lucia Rodriguez.
The duo's exit brings India's doubles campaign at the 2025 Canada Open to an end. (ANI)