Korea Open: Parupalli Kashyap enters quarterfinals, lone Indian left

Indian shuttler Parupalli Kashyap on Thursday advanced to the Korea Open men's singles quarterfinal after a three-game triumph over Malaysia's Daren Liew here. The 33-year-old from Hyderabad prevailed 21-17 11-21 21-12 over Daren, who is a 2018 World Championship bronze medallist, in a contest that lasted 56 minutes.

He will next square off against former world no 2, Denmark's Jan O Jorgensen, an opponent he last played five years ago at the Denmark Open. The 31-year-old Danish shuttler beat eight- seeded Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 17-21 21-16 21-13 in 58 minutes. Overall, Kashyap has a 2-4 record against Jorgensen, a 2015 World Championship bronze medallist. "In the first patch in the second game, he was playing really well. I was struggling and once he had a big lead, he played some very good shot. It was tough to make the scores equal."In the third game, I pushed the tempo and played a fast-paced game. I  didn't give him a big lead."

On playing Jorgensen after a long gap, Kashyap said: "It would be a good match. He beat Ginting, so he is in good form. I don't know why he didn't play China Open. It will be a tough match. Let's see."
 

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The lone Indian 

The 2014 Commonwealth Games gold-medallist is the lone Indian left in the fray in the BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament. Kashyap entered the match with a 2-2 head-to-head record against Daren, having beaten the Malaysian on the way to his Commonwealth Games gold in 2014. In the match, Daren opened up a 4-2 lead early on but Kashyap ensured he had a 11-8 advantage at the interval.

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The Indian reeled off four straight points after the break to make it 15-10. Daren, however, reduced the deficit to 14-15 before Kashyap accumulated three points at 18-17 to pocket the opening game. In the second game, Daren came out firing on all cylinders and grabbed 13 straight points to create a huge gap, which Kashyap couldn't bridge to allow the Malaysian to roar back into the contest. In the decider, Kashyap produced a blazing run, surging from 1-2 to 12-2 with 11 points. The Indian continued to move ahead even as Daren crumbled.

Earlier, world champion P V Sindhu and the seasoned Saina Nehwal crashed out following first-round setbacks. While Sindhu lost 7-21 24-22 15-21 to Beiwen Zhang of United States in her opening-round match, London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina was trailing 21-19, 18-21 and 1-8 against South Korea's Kim Ga Eun when she was forced to retire due to illness. World Championship men's singles bronze-medallist B Sai Praneeth also bowed out early from the tournament.

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