Parupalli Kashyap continued his impressive run to advance to the semi-finals of the Singapore Open Super Series badminton tournament, even as young H S Prannoy was left ruing his luck as a foot injury forced him to concede his quarter-final, on Friday.
Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap brushed aside France's Brice Leverdez 21-6, 21-17 in 30 minutes to set up a semi-final with Hong Kong's Hu Yun on Saturday.
Prannoy could not take the court after a foot injury -- suffered during his giant-killing act against Denmark's Jan Jorgensen on Thursday – aggravated and he had to concede a walkover to Japan's Kento Momota.
Kashyap hardly broke a sweat against Brice and opened up a 6-1 lead early on and did not allow the Frenchman to come closer. The Indian was at his dominating best in the opening game; from 9-6, he registered 12 straight points to leave Brice completely clueless.
In the second game, Kashyap took a 4-1 lead early on and kept his nose ahead despite Brice reducing the gap to 7-9 at one stage. He maintained his hold on the match to win comfortably in the end.
Kashyap has a 1-2 head-to-head record against his semi-final opponent, Hu Yun, but can take heart from the fact that he had defeated the Hong Kong shuttler during the 2013 BWF World Championships.
Prannoy, who hogged the limelight on Thursday after his second successive win over world No 2 two Jorgensen, could just watch from the sidelines after being left with a swollen foot due to the injury he suffered in the match.
"It just happened during the second game yesterday. Bad luck. Doctors have said I should be fine in 4-5 days. So hoping to recover as early as possible," said the world number 14-ranked Indian shuttler.
Image: Parupalli Kashyap
Photograph: Victor Fraile/Getty Images
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