PROTON-BWF THOMAS & UBER CUP 2010 FINALS: Injury scare for indonesia, Kashyap impresses on debut

Still only 22, Kashyap said he can take heart from his 14-21, 21-19, 21-18 defeat at Putra Stadium, Kuala Lumpur.

“This is only the second time I’m facing him but managed to steal a game,” said the 23-year-old shuttler.

“The first time I met him was in Hong Kong two years ago and he defeated me in straight games. To take one game off a great player like him, who has achieved so much in world badminton is very encouraging.”

He added his two main goals for the year are to beat a top 10 player and to win a medal in the Commonwealth Games which will be held in New Dehli later this year.

“I have not played in many tournaments this past two years as I’m still studying but it is my hope that 2010 will be my best yet in the game,” said the Bombay native.

Taufik, who explained that he trouble adapting to the draft in the stadium, acknowledged that experience was the significant difference in the match.

“Despite trailing by as much as seven points at one stage, I never panicked as I knew I had it in me to defeat him. He is a much improved player but I think my experience helped me today.”

India will now play Australia on Tuesday, knowing a win will give them a place in the quarter-finals. The Aussies were beaten 5-0 by Indonesia yesterday.

However, the former champions suffered a potentially damaging setback when former Asian champion Sony Dwi Kuncoro re-injured his back in his match against Arvind Bhatt.

“Sony injured his back. It is an old injury. We have been keeping our eye on it,” said team manager Yakob Rusdianto. “We rested him from Sunday’s match against Australia to give him time to rest but he aggravated the injury in the second game.”

Sony had won the first game 21-19 but was clearly struggling with his movements. He could hardly retrieve the shuttlecock in the second game, losing 21-9 before deciding to quit the match.

Yakob said it is uncertain if Sony would recover in time for the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

“We have to wait and see. Certainly he is a good player and I don’t want to lose him but we have good strength in the singles so, I’m not too worried,” said Yakop.

THOMAS CUP

GROUP A

South Korea 5 Peru 0 (Shon Wan Ho bt Andres Corpancho 21-9, 21-15; Yoo Yeon-seong-Cho Gun Woo bt Antonio Corpancho-Martin Del Valle 21-14, 21-10; Hong Ji-hoon bt Bruno Monteverde 21-13, 21-13; Shin Baek-cheoi-Kim Ki-jung bt Mario Cuba-Andres Corpancho 21-11, 21-14; Lee Hyun-il bt Rodrigo Pacheco 21-8, 21-5

GROUP D

Indonesia 4 India 1 (Taufik Hidayat bt Kashyap Parupalli 14-21, 21-19, 21-18; Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan bt Sanave Thomas-Akshay Dewalkar 21-11, 21-13; Sony Dwi Kuncoro lost Arvind Bhatt 21-19, 9-21, rtd; Alvent Yulianto Chandra-Hendra Aprida Gunawan bt Rupesh Kumar-Diju Viliyaveetil 14-21, 21-13, 21-11; Simon Santoso bt Anup Sridhar 21-8, 21-17)

UBER CUP

GROUP B

Denmark 3 Australia 2 (Camilla Sorensen bt Eric Pong 21-15, 21-6; Karina Jorgensen lost Renuga Veeran 20-22, 13-21; Mette Poulsen lost Chia Chi Huang 11-21, 5-21; Kamilla Rytter Juhl-Christina Pedersen bt Kate Wilson-Renuga Veeran 21-12, 21-19; Lena Frier Kristiansen-Marie Repke bt He Tian Tiang-Chia Chi Huang 21-13, 21-16)

GROUP C

Russia 4 Germany 1 (Ella Diehl lost Juliane Schenk 16-21, 13-21; Tatjana Bibik bt Karin Schnaase 21-18, 21-12; Anastasia Prokopenko bt Fabienne Deprez 22-20, 17-21, 21-19; Valerie Sorokina-Nina Vislova bt Birgit Overzier-Juliane Schenk 21-17, 21-11; Anastasia Prokopenko-Anatasia Russkikh bt Carla Nelte-Johanna Goliszewski) 21-12, 21-17)