Japan Open badminton: Kashyap knocked out as India's campaign ends

Tokyo: India’s campaign at the $275,000 Japan Open Superseries came to an end as world No.8 shuttler Parupalli Kashyap was knocked out in the men’s singles quarter-final here on Friday. The World No.8 lost 14-21, 18-21 to Chinese Taipei’s sixth seed Chou Tien Chen in just 42 minutes at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. [caption id=“attachment_2429982” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of Parupalli Kashyap. Getty[/caption] Kashyap was the lone Indian who entered the quarter-finals after Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and H.S. Prannoy and lost their respective second round matches here on Thursday. With win over Kashyap, Chou Tien Chen levelled things up 2-2 in their career meetings. Chen was the aggressor right from the start as the sixth seed gathered five consecutive points in the first game compared to Kashyaps’s three. Among total 35 points played in the game, Chen grabbed 21 to go 1-0 up in the match in style. The Indian came back strongly in the second game but his opponent from Chinese Taipei was too good for him. With six consecutive points the sixth seed surged ahead into the semi-finals winning 21 points out of 39 played. Chou Tien Chen will play the winner of the other last-eight clash between seventh seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark and unseeded Korean Lee Dong Keun. IANS