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Sindhu wins, Kashyap loses in Korea Open

By The Assam Tribune

SEOUL, Sept 16: Top Indian shuttler PV Sindhu started her campaign at the USD 600,000 Korea Open with a hard-fought win over Thailand�s Ratchanok Intanon, but it was curtains for Parupalli Kashyap in men�s singles event at the Super Series tournament here today.

Two-time bronze medallist at World Championship, Sindhu eked out a 21-19, 21-23, 21-13 win over the former World Champion in a women�s singles match that lasted one hour and nine minutes.

Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap, however, could not cross the opening round hurdle after his battle ended with a narrow 21-17, 16-21, 18-21 loss against Wei Nan of Hong Kong in an hour-long match. It was also curtains for Pradnya Gadre and Sikki Reddy in the women�s doubles competition as they suffered a 24-26, 9-21 loss to the Japanese pair of Shizuka Matsuo and Mami Naito at the SK Handball stadium.

Sindhu, who came into the match with a 0-3 record against the World No. 5 Intanon, showed her mettle till the end to emerge victories against an opponent who had beaten her in straight-games all three times in 2013.

The two players engaged in a tooth and nail fight from the start as after Sindhu opened up a narrow 4-2 lead in the opening game early on, Intanon turned the tables and moved to a 9-6 advantage.

The Indian reeled off four straight points to wrest back control but after that it turned out a rollercoaster ride as lead changed hands too frequently before Sindhu broke off at 18-18 to close the first game in her favour. In the second game, Sindhu fought back from 4-7 and 8-12 to jump to 20-15 lead and with a chance to seal the match but Intanon produced six straight points to first topple the Indian and then roared back into the contest.

In the decider, Intanon quickly grabbed a 7-3 lead but the a gritty Sindhu soon clawed back and started dominating the proceedings as she continued to extend the gap which the Thai girl could not bridge. � PTI

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