India's World No 30 loses semi-final to Korean Wan Ho Shon in three sets
India’s Parupalli Kashyap, who had booked an Olympic berth on Friday, put up a valiant fight in his semi-final tie against South Korea’s Wan Ho Shon but went down in three sets at the India Open Super Series badminton here Saturday.
India’s P Kashyap returns to Korea’s Shon Wan Ho during their India Open semi-final in New Delhi on Saturday. Pic/AFP.
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Kashyap qualified for the London Olympics Friday courtesy a walkover by third-seeded Chinese Chen Jin in the quarter-final. However he couldn’t add to his ecstasy as he was defeated 14-21, 21-19, 16-21 by the South Korean in a match lasting over an hour.
The World No 30 was hot on the heels of the South Korean, who defeated Peter Gade of Denmark on the previous round, but fell away at the half-way point as Wan took control. Kashyap, to his credit, came back strongly in the second. Wan led a large part of the game but the unseeded Indian came back to win four points in a row to take the game, thus sending the match into a decider. In third game, Kashyap had the upper hand initially leading 10-8 but the South Korean seemed to wake up from a slumber and raced ahead a decisive 18-12 lead.
“In the decider, I was controlling the points well. But made quite a few errors and that cost me,” said Kashyap.
In the final, Wan will now face top seed and Malaysia’s World No 1 Lee Chong Wei. He thrashed Chinese Taipei’s Jen Hao Hsu 21-13, 21-7.
In the women’s singles, Germany’s Juliane Schenk accounted for qualifier Xiao Jia Chen 21-16, 21-13 to set up a final date against Li Xuerui, who got a walkover from compatriot Jiang Yangjiao in the other semi-final.
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