Two-time Olympic shuttler Niluka Karunaratne lost the Men’s Open Singles semi-finals of the 56th Portuguese International Badminton Championships 2021 in Portugal yesterday.
Karunaratne who has a World Ranking of 119, lost to the German bottom seed Max Weisskirchen in straight sets 12-21, 10-21 in the semi-finals.
Earlier, Karunaratne received a walk over in the first-round but in the second-round he defeated Denmark’s Kim Bruun (World Rank 89) 7-21, 23-21, 21-15 to enter the quarter finals.
In the quarter-finals, Karunaratne defeated Raul Must (World Rank 90) from Estonia in straight sets 21-18, 27-25.
Karunaratne is currently ranked 41st in the Men’s Single Olympic Qualification list, where the top 40 will qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Currently, New Zealand’s Abhinav Manota with 16.347 points is in 40th place while Karunaratne is 287 points behind in 41st place with 16.060 points.
According to Badminton World Federation (BWF) selection criteria, the 40 top-ranked shuttlers in the world will qualify for the Tokyo Olympics and compete in the Men’s Singles.
After this event, Karunaratne will compete in one more competition, trying to make up for lost time due to COVID-19.
If he makes the Olympic Qualification, it will be his third Olympic Games, having represented the country at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
