Korea Open 2019: Parupalli Kashyap loses in the semi-finals

The Indian challenge ended as Parupalli Kashyap lost to the world number one ranked, Kento Momota in the semi-finals of the Super 500 Korea Open played at Incheon on Saturday. Momota produced a dominating display against Kashyap and won the match comfortably.

In the first game, the Indian played some lovely shots, but could not match the speed of the Japanese. Momota led 11-7 at the interval. After the break, the Japanese continued his dominating performance and showed his class with variety of strokes and ended up winning the first game 21-13. 

The second game saw Kashyap start off slowly and Momota took the advantage of the mistakes that the Indian committed. At the interval, the Japanese led 11-7, Kashyap made a recovery after returning from the interval to and leveled the scores 12-12. The Japanese showed got back fiercely and took five consecutive points to increase his lead over the opponent. Momota won the 2nd set 21-15 to move into the finals.

It was a disappointing outing for the Indian shuttlers at the Super 500 Korea Open. PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Sai Praneeth were knocked out in the first round. The men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy, Satwiksairaj Ranki Reddy and Chirag Shetty went down fighting in the first round itself. 

Kashyap had a decent outing in the 2019 Korea Open. He defeated Lu Chia Hung in the first round by 21-16, 21-16. In the second round, he won a three-set match against Darren Liew by 21-17, 11-21, 21-12 and qualified to the next round. In the quarterfinals, the Indian defeated Jan O Jorgensen in two straight sets by 24-22, 21-8 to enter the semi-finals. 

Now the next tournament would be the Dutch Open starting on 8th October, 2019. 

Cover picture credits: Sportskeeda