Korea Open: Kashyap in QFs, injury plagues Sai Praneeth & Saina Nehwal

The Indian contingent has not fared well at the Korea Open Super 500 tournament as only Parupalli Kashyap made it through to the quarter-finals stage on Thursday.

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Round One woes

The first disappointment came for the Indians when B Sai Praneeth played Denmark's Anders Antonsen. Praneeth could not perform as he got dominated by Anders in the first game that ended at 21-9. In the second round, the score was 11-9 when Sai Praneeth pulled out of the game because of his injury. World Champion P.V. Sindhu was the next one to lose as she faced USA's Beiwen Zhang. Sindhu dominated the first game only allowing Zhang to score 7 points but Zhang scripted a strong comeback in the remaining two games as the scoreline read 24-22 and 21-15. Sindhu was knocked out too.

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Korea's Kim Ga Eun faced Saina Nehwal and Saina looked strong as she won the first game 21-19. The next game was won by Ki 21-18, and the third game was at 8-1 when Saina retired from the match because of injury. Hopes were redeemed when Parupalli Kashyap managed to beat Malaysia's Liew Daren 21-17,11-21,21-12 on Thursday. The two Indian pairs in the men's doubles competition did not make it through either as they were defeated by China and Japan.

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Kashyap's Next Opponent

Kashyap is now in the quarter-final of the Korea Open and his opponent will come from the winner of the match between Anthony Ginting and Jan O Jorgensen. Sai Praneeth and Saina will nurse their injuries before they return to action. Saina has had an injury-plagued year and has only won the Indonesia Open. She crashed out of the China Open in the first round last week.

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