China: India’s Parupalli Kashyap played one of the longest matches of his career as he roared into the prequarterfinals with a gruelling three-game win over Chinese Taipei’s Jen Hao Hsu at the USD 200,000 Badminton Asia Championship here today.
In a men’s singles contest that lasted for more than an-hour-and-a-half, Kashyap played out of his skin as he fought back to see off Hsu 15-21 21-18 21-19 at the Wuhan Sports Center Gymnasium. Commonwealth Games champion, Kashyap will next take on seventh seed Chinese Zhengming Wang, who beat Thailand’s Boonsak Ponsana 21-10 21-12 in another match. The Indian has lost to Wang thrice, while defeated him once at the 2014 India Super Series.
Two-time bronze medallist at the World Championship, P V Sindhu, too, made a positive start after missing in action due to an injury. She took just 16 minutes to dispose of Uzbekistan’s Anait Khurshudyan 21-6 21-5 in a women’s singles match here.
The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Sindhu, seeded eighth, will next meet Macao’s U Teng Iok. Indian men’s doubles pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Jerry Chopra failed to cross the second round hurdle as they lost 15-21 17-21 to fourth seeds Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa of Japan.
The men’s singles match between Kashyap and Hsu saw a lot of drama as the electricity went off when the Indian was leading 20-19 in the decider. Around 10 to 15 minutes time was lost in the process, but when the lights were on, Kashyap didn’t waste any time as his serve earned him the match point.
Beaten during the India Super Series, Hsu had come well prepared in the match against Kashyap. His tactics did bother the Indian, who failed to get a hold of the match early on, allowing the Chinese Taipei shuttler to open up a 7-2 lead.
In the second game, Hsu once again opened up a slender 5-2 lead but Kashyap soon clawed back. The game went neck-and-neck till 12-12, before the Indian broke off. World No. 14 Kashyap moved to 15-12 but Hsu was breathing down his neck all the time.
However, Kashyap managed to keep him at bay and eventually roared back into the contest. In the decider, Kashyap once again fought back from 2-5 and 16-18 down to turn the tables on his rival at the last moment to eke out a victory in a match that tested the two shuttlers to the core.
“It was a tough match, quite long. But I am happy with my performance. He had beaten me once during ABC last year. Even in India Open it was a tight match,” Kashyap told PTI.
“There was also some electricity problem when I was serving at 20-19. We were like stranded for 10 to 15 minutes on the court. Once lights were on, I served and after sometime he lifted it out Overall a good match. I hope I can recover well for tomorrow,” he added.
Bureau Report
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