Kashyap enters semifinals, injured Prannoy concedes match

Singapore: Indian ace Parupalli Kashyap continued his impressive form, advancing to the semifinals of Singapore Open Super Series badminton tournament but young H S Prannoy was left ruing his luck as a foot injury saw him concede his quarterfinal match here.

Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap brushed aside France's Brice Leverdez 21-6 21-17 in 30 minutes to set up a semifinal clash with Hong Kong's Hu Yun on Saturday. Prannoy, on the other hand, could not take the court after his foot injury -- suffered during his giant-killing act against Denmark's Jan Jorgensen yesterday -- aggravated today and he had to give a walkover to Japan's Kento Momota in another quarterfinal match. 

Kashyap hardly broke any sweat against Brice as he dished out a game which the French could not negotiate. The Indian opened up a 6-1 lead early on and did not allow the Frenchman to come closer to him. Kashyap was at his dominating best in the opening game as from 9-6, he registered 12 straight points to leave Brice completely clueless.
In the second game, Kashyap once again took a 4-1 lead early on and kept his nose ahead, despite a fighting Brice who could only manage to reduce the gap to 7-9 at one stage. The Indian never lost the grip from the match and sealed the issue comfortably in the end.

Kashyap has a 1-2 head-to-head record against his semifinal opponent Hu Yun but the Indian 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 yesterday after his second successive win over world number two Jorgensen, could just watch from the sidelines today after he was left with a swollen feet due to the injury suffered. 

"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," Prannoy, who is ranked world number 14, told PTI.