Kashyap loses in semis

Singapore, April 11: Indian shuttler Parupalli Kashyap lost 22-20, 11-21, 14-21 to Hong Kong’s Hu Yun in the $300,000 Singapore Open Superseries men’s singles semi-fils here on Saturday.

World No.15 Kashyap lost in 58 minutes to Yun at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. With this win, World No.13 Yun took a 3-1 lead in career meetings against the 28-year-old Hyderabadi.

In a hard fought first game, Kashyap took an 11-4 lead but after the break, Yun fought back and took the fight till the end. But the Indian pulled off the thriller at last with some wonderful edge of the line high jump smashes and had Yun scampering for some and losing 20-22.

However, Yun came back in the second game with some zeal and breezed past Kashyap to beat him in the second game 21-11. The Indian looked quite clueless as Yun won three consecutive crucial points and played near perfect badminton.

The Commonwealth Games champion tried coming back in the last game but failed against a much more inspired Yun, who kept on the pressure and filly clinched the game 21-14 and with it the encounter.

Kashyap’s loss also marked the end of India’s campaign in the tourment.

In the fil on Sunday, Yun will face world No.10 Kento Momota of Japan, who eased past Simon Santoso 21-10, 21-13 in 37 minutes.

The women’s singles fil will see Hong Kong’s fifth seed Tai Tzu Ying taking on Sun Yu of Chi. While, Tzu Ying overcame Chi’s former world champion Yihan Wang 21-16, 9-21, 21-14 in 54 minutes, Sun moved past her compatriot and former world No.1 Shixian Wang 21-14, 11-21, 21-19 in one hour and 12 minutes. IANS