It was a day of mixed fortunes for India, as Commonwealth Games champion P Kashyap, and for Hong Kong Super Series finalist Sameer Verma, had contrasting results. Kashyap, on a comeback, won his match to reach the pre-quarterfinals. Unfortunately, it was curtains for Sameer at the $120,000 Macau Grand Prix Gold at Macau on Wednesday.
Kashyap recently recovered from multiple injuries, and also took a break after the Denmark Open in order to work on his fitness and game. He defeated Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Wei Chen 21-19 21-8. His next opponent is Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu Hsien. Incidentally, Kashyap is back on the circuit after a gap of almost a month.
Sameer, who had a sensational campaign at Hong Kong last week, put up a good fight against Muhammad Bayu Pangisthu of Indonesia. However, he failed to break his opponent’s defence and lost 18-21 13-21 to bow out of the tournament.
The men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy managed to overcome the challenge of Hong Kong’s Chan Alan Yun Lung and Li Kuen Hon 21-11 17-21 21-9. Attri and Reddy, the third seeds, will now take on Singapore’s Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Hendra Wijaya.
Coming back to the men’s singles matches, Kashyap lead 5-0 early on and then entered the lemon break at 11-7. However, Chun-Wei fought back with a strong challenge. He ultimately turned the tables on Kashyap with an eight-point burst. The Indian then slowly and steadily made his way back to reach 16-19 before sealing the opening game with five straight points.
In the second game, Kashyap was dominant from the onset. With the scores at 5-5, the Indian shuttler broke off. From that time, he never looked back as Chun-Wei crumbled under pressure. In fact, Kashyap’s dominance can be gauged from the scoreline of 21-8. Let us see what the rest of the tournament has in store for him.
