P. V. Sindhu played her heart out before losing her quarterfinal, while Parupalli Kashyap retired hurt midway through his match at the German Open that dealt a fresh blow to his Olympic qualification hopes, here.
Seventh-seeded Sindhu, lone Indian in the women’s singles, lost 16-21, 18-21 to fourth-seeded Chinese Wang Shixian today. With her defeat India’s challenge ended in the tournament.
Already racing against time to earn an Olympic berth, Kashyap was back on the court after recovering from a series of injuries which derailed his preparation for the Summer Games. However, the Commonwealth Games champion suffered a knee injury during his clash against eighth-seeded Son Wan Ho of Korea last night and had to retire midway, trailing 12-21, 11-16 at the RWE-Sporthalle here.
Kashyap was attended to by physiotherapist Dr. Johnson Solomon but the extent of his injury is still not clear.
“He is fine now but we are waiting for some tests. Only after that, we can say how much time would be needed for him to recover,” Johnson said.
Meanwhile, World No. 10 Kidambi Srikanth, seeded No. 6, also bowed out of the men’s singles event after losing 21-18, 18-21, 18-21 to 12th-seeded NG Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong in another pre-quarterfinal match.
Once World No. 8, Kashyap slipped to 17th owing to a series of injuries that started with a calf muscle tear in October last year. He played in the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold but could not defend the title, bowing out in the quarterfinals after suffering an abdominal strain.
The Hyderabad lad was named in the team for the South Asian Games, which was held in Guwahati and Shillong early last month, but after repeated requests to BAI and SAI, he was left out of the team at the last moment. The 29-year-old had also skipped the Badminton Asia Team Championship to focus on regaining his fitness so that he could take a shot at Olympic qualification by garnering crucial points to reach the World top-16 before the deadline on May 1.
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