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A very disappointing news has come out from the Indian badminton world on Friday, where the great journey of the country's legendary shuttler and former world number-1 Kidambi Srikanth in China Masters 2026 has ended with the quarter-final match. At the prestigious BWF World Tour Super 750 event being held in Shenzhen, Srikanth suffered a hard-fought defeat in straight games to Hong Kong's talented Lee Chiuk Eu. The hopes of the Indian camp were dashed with the defeat in this title match, however, the fighting performance shown by Srikanth throughout the tournament has once again won the hearts of his fans. Defeated in straight games, Hong Kong player put pressure. In this exciting quarter-final match of China Masters, a tough competition was seen on the court between Kidambi Srikanth and Lee Chiuk Eu of Hong Kong. Initially it seemed that the Indian shuttlers would be successful in turning the match on the basis of their experienced game, but the Hong Kong shuttlers gradually established complete control over the match with the help of their excellent strategy and fast court coverage. Ultimately, in the scheduled match, Kidambi Srikanth had to face defeat in straight sets of 16-21 and 16-21. In the first game of the match, Srikanth started the match in a very aggressive and positive manner, due to which he quickly won two points in the initial round itself. However, Lee Cheuk Eau leveled the score in no time and turned the momentum of the game in his favor to take the first game by a safe margin of five points. Srikanth tried his best to make a comeback with some excellent smashes and net play in between, but he failed to bridge the gap of lead created by the Hong Kong shuttler. Kidambi Srikanth missed despite taking lead in the second game. In the second game of the match, Kidambi Srikanth changed his strategy and started very aggressively and performed brilliantly and took a strong lead of 4-0 in the initial moments itself. It looked as if the Indian would be successful in taking the match to the third and deciding set, but this was where Srikanth made some consecutive unforced errors. He squandered his early lead by losing four consecutive points, giving Lee Cheuk Eau an open opportunity to make a spectacular comeback in the match. Despite this, Srikanth did not give up and tried to turn the score in his favor by presenting a very tough match in the second game. At an exciting turn of the game, the Indian shuttlers had also gained a significant lead of 15-14, due to which the hopes of the spectators sitting in the stadium were once again raised. But Hong Kong's experienced Lee raised the level of his game in the pressure moments and took full advantage of Srikanth's minor weaknesses and mistakes and scored points continuously and ultimately won the match. Lee has the upper hand in head-to-head record, Srikanth gets fourth consecutive defeat. With this important victory, Lee Chiuk Eu of Hong Kong has further strengthened his career head-to-head record against Kidambi Srikanth. Srikanth has consistently proved difficult to play against Lee on the international circuit, and with this defeat the Indian shuttler has suffered his fourth consecutive defeat at the hands of Lee. If we look at the statistics, Kidambi Srikanth had defeated Lee Cheuk Eyu only once in his career in the first round of India Open in 2018. Since then, whenever these two players have come face to face, it has been the Hong Kong shuttler who has won. This time too, Lee overpowered Srikanth in terms of technical proficiency and better handling of mental pressure, due to which the Indian player once again felt disappointed. The best performance of three years was memorable, despite the sorrow of shocking defeat with big upsets, overall, this entire China Masters 2026 campaign for Kidambi Srikanth has proved to be his personal best performance in the last three years. The kind of rhythm and form that Srikanth showed in this tournament proved that he still has the potential to win big tournaments. The Indian shuttler started his brilliant campaign by defeating Chinese Taipei's strong player Chi Yu-Jen in a short span of just 35 minutes. In that match, Srikanth had defeated the world number-21 player in straight sets of 21-16 and 21-15. After this, in the pre-quarterfinal round, Srikanth pulled off a historic and sensational upset by defeating world number 9 shuttler Victor Lai on the field. In that tough match, Srikanth secured his place in the quarter-finals by defeating Lai 21-18 and 21-19. Although his journey may have ended in the last-8, his fighting journey will be remembered for a long time among Indian badminton lovers.