Parupalli Kashyap retires from French Open

Paris : Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap bowed out of the men’s singles event of French Open after he retired in the third game of his second round match against Rajiv Ouseph of England in the USD 275,000 Super Series tournament on Thursday. Eighth seed Kashyap lost the opening game but came back strongly in the second only to be forced to concede the match in the decider. In the end of the 43-minute match, Rajiv advanced to the quarterfinals with a 21-11 13-21 4-2 win over the Indian at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin. The England shuttler played a dominating game as he didn’t allow Kashyap much chance in the opening game. He lead 11-5 at the break in the first game and then slowly crafted his way to pocket the game.

In the second, kashyap turned the tables as he lead 5-1 early on and then jumped to a 11-4 lead at the interval. He went from strength to strength to bounce back in style but the decider ended at 2-4 when he retired midway. Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal lost her world no.1 spot to reigning World Champion Carolina Marin as the Badminton World Federation (BWF) updated its rankings. Saina’s performance in the last two tournaments — Japan Open and Denmark Open — where she lost to Japan’s Minatsu Mitani in the second round of both the events, led her to drop to No.2 in women’s singles. However, P.V. Sindhu remained stagnant at No.13 despite her appearance in the final of the Denmark Open on Sunday. In men’s singles, it wasn’t great news as Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli Kashyap and H.S. Prannoy all dropped in rankings. While Srikanth slid a spot to be sixth, reigning Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap slipped two places to be at No.10.