Jakarta, June 6: Indian shuttler Parupalli Kashyap's splendid run at the $800,000 Indonesia Open Super Series Premier badminton tournament ended on Saturday as he lost to Japanese rising star Kento Momota 21-12, 17-21, 19-21 in the men's singles semi-final here.
Kashyap, 28, bidding to reach the summit clash of a Super Series tournament for the first time set it up beautifully with a stunning 21-12 victory in the first game over world No. 9 Momota.
Following Kashyap's loss, India's campaign in the tournament also ended as he and Saina Nehwal were the only ones who reached the quarter-finals on Friday. Saina lost to China's Shixian Wang in a final eight contest.
With this win, two-time world junior champion Momota reached the final of the Superseries for the second time in this year and also took a 2-0 lead in career meetings over the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Kashyap.
Kashyap, who defeated world No. 8 Son Wan ho and world No.1 Chen Long in the second round and quarter-finals, respectively, played an aggressive game from the beginning. His aggression helped him earn eight consecutive points to take a huge lead at 17-8 and that gave him a 21-12 win.
But 2015 Singapore Open champion Momota fought back and turned the heat on Kashyap from the start in the second game. Making his intentions clear, he raced to a 5-1 lead.
But Kashyap unleashed high jump smashes to snatch consecutive eight points to build a 9-5 advantage.
However, Momota's sharp net game helped him equalise at 11-11 and the game witnesses a see-saw battle till the 17-point mark before Momota sealed it by taking four points on the trot to make it 1-1.
In the third game, both Kashyap and Momota didn't allow each other to gain advantage till the 10-point mark before Kashyap showed moved ahead by taking a two straight points. But Momota's delectable drop shots kept Kashyap in check.
Even though the Hyderabadi shuttler again showed his ascendancy by taking a four-point lead at 17-13, a combative Momota refused to go down. Riding on five consecutive points, the Japanese sealed the game 21-19 and with this the match.
In the final Momota awaits the winner between Denmark's world No.2 and defending champion Jan O Jorgensen and Germany's world No.19 Marc Zwiebler.
IANS