Bukit Jalil, May 24 -- Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth reached his first World Tour Final of the Malaysia Masters 2025 badminton tournament in Bukit Jalil since 2019, after defeating Japan's Yushi Tanaka in the semi-final on Saturday, according to Olympics.com.

Currently ranked 65th in the badminton rankings, Srikanth defeated world No. 23 Yushi Tanaka 21-18, 24-22 in a hard-fought semi-final contest which lasted 49 minutes.

This was Srikanth's first semi-final appearance of the year. His last top-four finish on the BWF World Tour was at the Swiss Open Super 300 in March 2024.

In the final, the Indian badminton player will face the winner of the other semi-final clash between Japan's world No. 8 Kodai Naraoka and Li Shifeng of the ...