Li Shi Feng won his first BWF World Tour title with a 21-11, 21-9 dismantling of Kidambi Srikanth in the final of the Malaysia Masters 2025. The match, which lasted just 36 minutes, was a display of how much ahead of his opponent the current world no.4 is.
An epic semifinal win had given Indian badminton fans a reason to hope for success in the final, but Srikanth started nervously in his first major final in four years. A series of errors handed Li the advantage -- five of the first six points Li got in this match were unforced errors from Kidambi -- and that was all the opening Li needed. Having barely been threatened all tournament, his fine form carried into the final. He took the first game away from Srikanth by controlling the rallies, defending well against the aggressive Indian, and picking him off with power and deft touch from the mid court.
Srikanth showed glimpses of the player he once was -- a couple of disguised drops, one off a jump, especially stood out -- but as he went searching for the margins to get the better of the 6'1" Li, he kept missing the lines. The closest Srikanth got to Li after the opening exchanges was when the score was 6-10, but soon Li motored away. 11-6 became 13-6, became 17-10, and soon 20-11. Of the nine game points, Li took just one as he jump smashed to 21-11 in the first.
Srikanth started better in the second but Li showed off his full repertoire of skills: to make it 6-3, he defended a relentless Srikanth attacking rally brilliantly, before in the flick of a switch, he went to all-out-attack and won the rally with a brutal smash down the line. Srikanth kept it close till 5-8, but then the errors crept back in and that combined with Li's ruthlessness at the net saw the score get to 5-11 at the break of the second game. Two basic errors at 6-12 then killed whatever momentum Srikanth had been trying to build up with his attacking play, and that was pretty much that. 15-6 became 18-7, and 19-9, before a body smash and a jump smash cross-court later Li had taken the game 21-9 and the match 2-0.
You can relive all the action right here in our live blog, as it happened: