Kidambi Srikanth Pulls Out Of Australian Open; Sameer, Mithun In Fray

Srikanth had reached the semifinals in his last tournament at Hylo Open in Saarbrucken, Germany. The Indian had finished at the last four at Korea Open and Swiss Open as well.

Star Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth has pulled out of the Australian Open Super 300 badminton tournament beginning here on Tuesday. Srikanth, thus, joined Lakshya Sen and doubles duo Satwiksairaj Rankreddy and Chirag Shetty in withdrawing from the USD 180,000 tournament. Placed at number 10 in the Race to Guanzhou rankings, Srikanth needed to win the tournament to have any hopes of qualifying for the season-ending World Tour Final in December.

But the 29-year-old from Guntur, who had claimed the bronze medal at Commonwealth Games and also played a heroic role in India's epic Thomas Cup win this year, decided to give it a miss.

Srikanth had reached the semifinals in his last tournament at Hylo Open in Saarbrucken, Germany. The Indian had finished at the last four at Korea Open and Swiss Open as well.

His withdrawl means HS Prannoy will India's only representation at the World Tour Finals, especially after the double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu too pulled out of the Guangzhou event on Sunday.

India's challenge at Australian Open will be led by Sameer Verma, who is coming back from a long injury lay-off. He will open his campaign against Nathan Tang.