Swiss Open: Kashyap falls to Chong again

HYDERABAD: Hours after achieving his career-best No. 7 ranking, Parupalli Kashyap tumbled out of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold losing to Wei Feng Chong of Malaysia in the pre-quarters on Thursday. A little while later, HS Prannoy, who caused one of the biggest upsets of the tournament on Wednesday, went down to Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei 16-21, 21-15, 15-21.
Teen shuttler PV Sindhu suffered a straight-game loss against Yui Hashimoto of Japan 21-23, 11-21 leaving the job of restoring Indian pride to Saina Nehwal who, on Wednesday, recovered after losing the first game to beat Sashina Vigneswaran of France 13-21, 21-15, 21-12. She will now face Petya Nedelcheva of Bulgaria in the pre-quarters late on Thursday.
Despite being ranked 11 rungs above Chong, Kashyap had never won against the Malaysian. On Thursday too, after losing the first game at 18-21, Chong made an impressive comeback to extend his winning streak over the Indian to 3-0.
Kashyap looked clueless in the second game as Chong grew in confidence after gaining an 8-3 lead. The Indian committed too many unforced errors and allowed Chong to rake up nine consecutive points from 8-4. Realising that it's almost impossible to recover from a deficit of 4-17, Kashyap remained a mute spectator as Chong clinched the second game at 21-7.
Kashyap played better in the decider and stayed close to Chong till 15-15. It was here Chong won five crucial points and hardly gave a chance for the Indian.
Though he lost in the third round, Prannoy did well against world no.24 Chou. After losing the first game the Indian youngster dominated Chou in the second game (21-15) before running out of gas in the third (15-21).
Men's doubles duo of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar lost to top seeds Sung Hyun Ko and Yong Dae Lee of Korea in the second round.
Results:
Men's singles (Rd II): Parupalli Kashyap lost to Wei Feng Chong (Mas) 21-18, 7-21, 16-21; Tien Chen Chou (Tpe) bt HS Prannoy 21-16, 15-21, 21-15. Rd I: Parupalli Kashyap bt Dieter Domke (Ger) 15-21, 22-20, 21-13.
Doubles (Rd I): Pranaav Jerry Chopra/Akshay Dewalkar bt Bodin Issara/Sudket Prapakamol (Tha) 12-21, 21-17, 21-15. Rd II: Sung Hyun Ko/Yong Dae Lee (Kor) bt Pranaav Jerry Chopra/Akshay Dewalkar 21-14, 21-12.