Star shuttler Kidambi Srikanth bowed out of the India Open Super 750 tournament with a straight-game loss to Hong Kong's Lee Cheuk Yiu after yet another erratic performance in New Delhi on Wednesday.
A flurry of brilliant shots was sandwiched between a series of unforced errors during the 47-minute opening round clash as Srikanth went down 22-24 13-21 to world no. 18 Lee.
Srikanth made a good start in the opening game, playing some fine strokes from the back court to keep his nose ahead. But Lee kept breathing down his neck and slowly came back to the groove and, following a tight battle, moved ahead from 17-17 to grab three game points.
Srikanth managed to claw back at 20-20 before taking a one-point lead, but then, sprayed a shot wide, as Lee sealed the game with a crisp drop in the end.
While he looked good in the first game, Srikanth fell 2-11 behind at the break after the change of ends. He recovered to 6-12, but the damage was already done as the gap was too big to be bridged by the Indian.
"I know I have been making unforced errors for sometimes and I am working on it," said Srikanth after the match.
"I don't play safe, that's my game. I try to earn points. Hopefully, things will be better in the next few tournaments. Parupalli (Kashyap) has a few things on his mind, so let's see. If I win a few tournaments, I will qualify for the Olympics.
"I am not thinking about it as I just don't want to qualify only, I want to be a medal contender too."
Earlier, world No. 20 Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa, who had won the Guwahati Masters Super 100 last December, went down fighting to world No. 10 Thai pair of Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai 5-21 21-18 11-21 in their women's doubles opener.