Korea Open: Parupalli Kashyap Beats Jan O Jorgensen To Advance To Semi-Finals

Parupalli Kashyap defeated Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark in straight games to advance to the semi-finals of the Korea Open on Friday. Kashyap had to come back from behind to win the first game 24-22 but in the second game the Indian shuttler did not gave Jorgensen any chance as he took the second game 21-8 to advance to the next stage of the tournament in Incheon. He will now face Kento Momota, who beat Lee Zii jia in the quarterfinals.

Kashyap was down 8-11 at one point in the first game, but came back strongly with some powerful cross-court smashes edge it 24-22. The second set started off with both players on equal footing for a while, before Kashyap won five straight spots to comfortably seal a semi-final berth. 

Parupalli Kashyap had defeated Malaysia's Daren Liew 21-17 11-21 21-12 in a gruelling contest in the previous round to enter the quarterfinals.

This is Kashyap's second semi-final of the season. He had reached the last four of the India Open Super 500 tournament.

World no. 1 Kento Momota holds a 2-0 head-to-head record against Parupalli Kashyap, who is no. 30 in the rankings. They last played in the Denmark Open five years ago.

The semi-final will be played on Saturday.

The 2014 Commonwealth Games gold-medallist is the lone Indian left in fray in BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament.

Earlier, world champion PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal crashed out following setbacks in the first round of the tournament.

While Sindhu lost 7-21 24-22 15-21 to Beiwen Zhang of United States in her opening-round match, London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina was trailing 21-19, 18-21 and 1-8 against South Korea's Kim Ga Eun when she was forced to retire due to illness.