Former CWG champion wins on a day when all his compatriots including Sindhu, Saina and Sai Praneeth make first-round exits
On a day when all Indian shuttlers who created history in recent times bowed out in the opening round of the Korea Open BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament in Incheon, Parupalli Kashyap is the only one from the country to enter the second round.
Among the Indians to exit in the opening round on Wednesday were PV Sindhu in three hard-fought games, B Sai Praneeth and Saina Nehwal, both of whom retired due to health issues.
The 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap won his opening round match beating qualifier Lu Chia Hung of Chinese Taipei 21-16 21-16. The 30th-ranked Kashyap will face Malaysia's Daren Liew, ranked three places below, in the second round on Thursday.
The two equally share the spoils from their previous four meetings, though they came a long ago. The last time Kashyap faced Liew was in the 2014 Glasgow CWG quarterfinal round en route to his gold medal triumph.
Indian badminton's first World Championships gold medal winner, PV Sindhu went down fighting to USA's Beiwen Zhang 7-21 24-22 21-15 in 57 minutes. In only her second tournament after creating history in Basel last month, Sindhu made a very early exit. She had lost in the second round Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand of China Open last week. Sindhu, who had won the Korea Open title the last time she participated in 2017, will now set her sights on the Denmark Open World Tour Super 750 in Odense next month.
Sai twists ankle
India's first World Championships male bronze medallist since 1983, B Sai Praneeth retired in the second game after twisting an ankle.
The world No. 13 Sai Praneeth, who is only the second Indian male to win Worlds bronze after Prakash Padukone, was trailing 9-21 7-11 against Denmark's fifth-seeded Anders Antonsen before withdrawing.
"It was a small ankle twist. Nothing serious," Sai replied to a text message from DNA. He confirmed that he should be fit in time for his next two tournaments, the Denmark Open (October 15-20) and the French Open (October 22-27).
Also exiting on the day was the men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, the first Indian duo to win a Superseries gold – Thailand Open in July-August. They made an early exit in their second successive tournament since their historic triumph in Bangkok. Satwik-Chirag pair went down to Japan's Takeshi Kamura/ Keigo Sonoda 19-21 21-18 18-21.
Saina suffers stomach pain
Saina, former world No. 1 and currently 8th, battled stomach problems during her first round before condeding the match to local shuttler Kim Ga Eun. In fact, according to her husband, Kashyap, Saina had issues with stomach.
"She was in the hospital in the morning, she was in pain and was vomitting. Yet, she managed to come and play her first round," Kashyap told DNA on Wednesday.
"She tried her best to win in two games but she lost control of the second after winning the first.
And in the third, she was without energy and had to concede."
All these leave with only Kashyap being the lone Indian to enter the second round. The 33-year-old Kashyap is not particularly excited about being the only Indian standing in the tournament. "I would have preferred more Indian shuttlers in the second round," he told this paper. "Thursday's is just another match. Am not thinking much about it. It is not that I have been winning tournament after tournament to be thinking deep into my match against Liew," Kashyap said.
"I have been playing well in tournaments of late, losing close matches that I should have won. I lost to Indonesia's Anthony Ginting last week in China Open after being game point in the first and winning the second. I could not match his speed. I need to work more on it."
Kashyap is not taking Liew lightly. "He is also playing well. He beat Lin Dan in the first round," he said.
Results (Indians only, Rd 1):
Men's singles: Parupalli Kashyap (IND) bt Lu Chia Hung (TPE) 21-16 21-16, B Sai Praneeth lost to 5-Anders Antonsen (DEN) 9-21 7-11 retired
Women's singles: 5-PV Sindhu lost to Beiwen Zhang (USA) 21-7 22-24 15-21, 8-Saina Nehwal lost to Kim Ga Eun (KOR) 21-19 18-21 1-8 retired
Men's doubles: Manu Attri/ B Sumeeth Reddy lost to Huang Kai Xiang/ Liu Cheng (CHN) 16-21 21-19 18-21, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/ Chirag Shetty lost to 4-Takeshi Kamura/ Keigo Sonoda (JPN) 19-21 21-18 18-21
Playing today (Indians only, Rd 2):
Men's singles: Parupalli Kashyap vs Daren Liew (MAL)
MATCH STATS
Zhang
|
|
Sindhu
|
| 4 |
Most consecutive points |
12 |
| 4 |
Game points |
2 |
| 110 |
Total points played |
110 |
| 52 |
Total points won |
58 |
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