Kidambi Srikanth was eliminated from the Denmark Open in the pre-quarterfinals on 16 October 2026, losing 21-11, 15-21, 15-21 to Alex Lanier of France in 66 minutes, according to Zee News and Revsportz. Zee News described the match as an epic battle, and his campaign ended in Odense.
The scoreline shows how the match turned. Mr Srikanth won the first game by ten points, 21-11, and then lost the second by six points and the third by six, counts by IndiaX24 from the scores. Across the three games he scored 51 points to Mr Lanier’s 53, a sum worked out by IndiaX24 which shows how close the match was in total even though the first game was one-sided. Badminton matches are decided by games and not by total points, which is general background.
The opponent is described in the report as the reigning world champion, according to Zee News. IndiaX24 has not verified that title in a second source, and notes it as the report’s description. Mr Lanier is a French singles player, according to the report.
Mr Srikanth had reached the stage with an opening-round win, according to a search summary of the tournament, in which India’s wins came through him and Tanvi Sharma.
Tanvi Sharma’s position is unclear in the sources. Zee News said that she was scheduled to face Yvonne Li of Germany later in the tournament, while the headline of a Revsportz article says that Treesa-Gayatri and Tanvi reach the quarterfinals as Srikanth bows out. IndiaX24 therefore reports that one outlet says Tanvi has reached the last eight and that it has not seen the score of her match.
Ashmita Chaliha, the other Indian singles player in the round of 16, lost 18-21, 10-21 to the former world champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, according to Zee News. The two singles exits mean that India’s hopes in singles rest, as far as the reports show, on Tanvi.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won their women’s doubles match and meet the Malaysian second seeds next, as IndiaX24 reports in a separate article. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty had already gone out.
Mr Lanier’s win sets up a quarterfinal for him, according to the pre-quarterfinal stage at which the match was played, although the reports reviewed do not name his next opponent. For Mr Srikanth, the first-game scoreline of 21-11 shows that he can dominate a top player for stretches, while the 15-21 scores in the next two games show how Mr Lanier raised his level. The scores of the second and third games were identical, 15-21 each, a repetition noted by IndiaX24 from the results.
A 66-minute match over three games is long by the standards of the sport, where a game usually takes about 20 minutes, which is general background and an approximation. The 66 minutes therefore fits a match in which each of the last two games took more than 20 minutes, though the reports reviewed do not give the length of each game.
The reports reviewed do not say where Mr Srikanth plays next, and IndiaX24 will report on his schedule.
The loss is a missed chance in a draw that had opened. Mr Srikanth led comfortably in the first game and then lost his rhythm in the next two, according to the scores, though the reports reviewed do not describe the reasons, such as fatigue or tactics, and IndiaX24 does not speculate.
Image: Kidambi Srikanth in action in 2013 (file photo). Photo by Pierre-Yves Beaudouin, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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