TIL Desk Sports/ Commonwealth Games champion P Kashyap advanced to the semifinals of the Korea Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament after edging past Korea’s Jeon Hyeok Jin in a three-game thriller here today.
Kashyap, who is on a comeback trail after recovering his fitness following a long injury lay-off, defeated sixth seed Jin 18-21 21-8 21-16 in a nearly one-hour men’s singles contest of the USD 120,000 event here. The London Olympics quarter-finalist will face Korean top seed Son Wan Ho in the semifinals.
Kashyap blew a 9-5 and 11-8 lead at one stage to allow Jin make a comeback and draw parity at 11-11. The Korean then managed to move ahead to a 19-14 lead. The Indian did narrow down the gap to 18-19 but could not stop Jin from pocketing the opening game.
Kashyap got back his bearing in the second game as he dished out a superlative performance to jump to a 6-1 lead early on and then surged to 10-3 and then to 15-8. He then reeled off six straight points to win the second game and bounce back into the match.
