Kiran Georgethe only Indian badminton player competing at the Korea Masters 2024lost to Paris 2024 Olympics silver medallist Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in the semi-finals of the men’s singles event in Iksan on Saturday.
The 24-year-old Indian shuttler, 41st in the badminton rankings, went down against his world No. 5 Thai opponent with a 21-12, 21-20 scoreline in 53 minutes.
The two badminton players started on equal footing with the scores tied at 5-5. Kunlavut Vitidsarn pulled away with a four-point streak to seize control and went on to clinch the opening game.
The second game also began with a similar pattern. The scores were tied at 4-4 before Kunlavut Vitidsarn raced ahead to make it 13-4. However, Kiran George, playing in his first semi-final of the 2024 badminton season, fought back to level at 20-20, only for the reigning world champion to edge him out in the final two points.
Earlier at the Korea Masters, a BWF Super 300 event, the unseeded Kiran George got the better of fifth-seed Takuma Obayashi of Japan in the quarter-finals after defeating third-seed Chi Yu Jen of Chinese Taipei in the round of 16.
This was Kiran George’s second defeat against Kunlavut Vitidsarn in three matches. The Indian shuttler, a winner of the Odisha Open 2022 and the Indonesia Masters 2023, had beaten Kunlavut Vitidsarn at the Malaysia International Series in 2017.
