New Delhi: World number 30, Parupalli Kashyap, who was the last Indian hope at the India Open Super Series, crashed out in the semi-finals of the tournament played here at the Siri Fort Complex on Saturday.
Kashyap, who had qualified for the London Olympics, put up a brave show to take World number 17 Wan Ho Sun of Korea to the hilt, but eventually lost the match 14-21, 21-19, 16-21.
Sun was right on the money from the word go and dominated the proceedings from the onset. Kashyap down 7-11 took two consecutive points to reduce the gap to 9-11 and it looked like he would force a comeback, but erroneous shot selection and ability to judge Sun’s shots saw him conceding four consecutive points. At 16-11, it was no stopping Sun and in no time he cruised off to win the first game 21-14.
The next game started on same note and Kashyap went down 13-15 at the break. After the break it looked like that the World number 17 Korean would wrap up the proceedings fast but Kashyap showed immense resiliency to come back into the match. At 14-16 Kashyap was gifted two points by Sun who was busy creating silly errors on the court much to the delight of Kashyap. At 16-16, Kashyap sent one ripping smash to the left of Korean to which he could be only a mere spectator. The point saw Kashyap go up in the match for the first time. He took one more and then conceded two to square the score of at 18-18. He won two more consecutive points and was before conceding one. At 20-19 and job almost done, he sent one ripper back to finish off the game 21-19.
The next game saw long rallies and was full of errors from both the players. Sun led the deciding match 2-0 before conceding five consecutive points to go down 2-5. Both the players were on and off the point and Sun led at 11-10 at the break. With score reading 12-14, the match was poised for an exciting finish but Sun took four consecutive points to seal the fate of the match. Much of these points in this game were due to the errors both the players made. Down 18-12, Kashyap made one last attempt at denying what was looking inevitable by now but could not succeed in his endeavor to eventually lose 16-21.
Sun would now take on World number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the finals tomorrow.
Talking about the loss, Kashyap said that he was close but mistakes let him down. “It was going good until the point where I was 10-8 up and missed a crucial smash. I made mistake, missed lot of dribbles, but then I can say I played well today,” said Kashyap.
He said that it was a good tournament for him and he now has Olympics on his mind. “It was a good tournament and after playing here I feel that I have good chance at the Olympics now. I have Olympics on my mind and would train really well for it,” added Kashyap.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sports News
