Parupalli Kashyap crashed out of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament after losing to Wei Feng Chong of Malaysia in the men’s singles pre-quarter-finals in Basel on Thursday.
The fifth seeded Indian ace squandered the advantage of winning the first game and was beaten by his ninth-seeded opponent 21-18, 7-21, 16-21 in 55 minutes.
The London Olympics quarter-finalist opened up a 8-4 lead in the opening game but was caught up by the Malaysian soon. The scores ran neck and neck for a while before Kashyap broke away and took three straight points from 17-16 to bag the first game.
The Indian was surprisingly out of sorts in the second as he trailed all through after being tied at 2-2.
From there on, Chong took control as he reeled off nine straight points from 8-4 to easily grab the game.
The decider was a gripping affair, with the duo locked at 8-8 after an intense fight that saw none ready to concede ground to the other.
Chong reeled off five straight points from 8-8, but Kashyap fought back to level at 13-13 and then 15-15.
Kashyap, however, lost the plot towards the close as he allowed the Malaysian to win five straight points and trailed 15-20 before losing the match.
In another men's singles pre-quarter-final, H S Prannoy lost to Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei 16-21, 21-15, 15-21 in 60 minutes.
Prannoy had stunned seventh seed Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand in the second round.
In the men's doubles, the Indian duo of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar was handed a straight-game defeat by Korean top seeds Sung Hyun Ko and Yong Dae Lee, who won 21-14, 21-12.
In the women's singles, top seed Indian Saina Nehwal, who regained second place in world rankings on Thursday, prevailed over Sashina Vignes Waran of France 13-21, 21-15, 21-12 in 47 minutes to advance to the pre-quarter-finals.
