Kiran George, the world No 36, bowed out of the 2024 Indonesia Masters Super 500 in the quarter-final stage after a straight-game loss to Malaysia’s Kunvalut Vitidsarn on Friday.
Kiran lost 14-21, 6-21 to the world No 9 player in 43 minutes. He was the only Indian left in the tournament after Lakshya Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat both lost their respective Round of 16 matches on Thursday.
In the first game, Kiran began in a promising fashion in the opening exchanges but was quickly pegged back to trail 8-11 at the mid-game break. After the interval, the Indian managed to keep close to Vitidsarn but the Malaysian went on a four-point winning streak to take a significant lead and closed out the opening game 21-14.
The second game began in a better fashion for Kiran who caught up to Vitidsarn twice at three-all and four-all, but it proved to be temporary with the Malaysian winning 11 points in a row on both sides of the mid-game break. Kiran could only win one more point and Vitidsarn had 14 match points which he held on to with ease to seal the game 21-6.