The Indian juggernaut in men's badminton continued to roll with former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Parupalli Kashyap setting up a title clash with HS Prannoy at the US $120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold here.
After limping out of the court with a calf injury in October 2015, it was the first final for Kashyap in 21 months, while Prannoy, who has always been plagued by injuries,also reached his first summit clash after clinching the Swiss Open last year.
Kashyap eked out a hard-fought 15-21, 21-15, 21-16 win over Korean Kwang Hee Heo in the second semifinal which lasted an hour and six minutes.
Prannoy, on the other hand, notched up a 21-14, 21-19 win over Vietnam's Tien Minh Nguyen in the first semi-final.
It will be the second time this season that two Indians will fight it out for the title at international badminton.
In April, Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth had played in the finals of Singapore Open with the latter claiming his maiden Super Series title.
Men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy fought hard before going down 12-21, 21-12, 20-22 to top seeds lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han.
"It is good to reach a final after a long time. It was a tough match against the Korean," Kashyap told PTI. "He had started really well and I took time to adjust to the conditions today as it was little slow. He was really patient and he was hitting hard smashes. But slowly I got a good rhythm and eventually I could pull off."
"I think it was a difficult tournament to start with as the opening round was also against a player I had always had close matches. I had played him 5-6 times and I was good to win in the first round. Also playing against Sameer was tough. He is a tricky player and it has always been close matches with him. Really looking forward to the final," he added.
It will be third Grand Prix Gold title for Indian men's shuttlers after Sameer and Praneeth clinched the Syed Modi International and Thailand Open respectively. Indian men also won three super series titles with Srikanth clinching the Indonesia and Australia Open and Praneeth winning at Singapore.
‘I didn't know if I can play ever again’
New Delhi: Enduring the worst injury phase of his career, Indian shuttler Parupalli Kashyap says he had doubts if he would be able to play again after dislocating his right shoulder at the Premier Badminton league in January.
Ever since limping out of the court in October 2015 with a calf muscle injury, life has never been the same for Kashyap as he entered into a constant battle to regain fitness. He recovered from a torn calf muscle, only to suffer a knee injury at the German Open, which ended his Olympic dream as from World No 7, he slipped out of contention.
"It was the most difficult phase of my life. But even after missing the Olympics due to the knee injury, I was still motivated. I told myself okay, Olympics is gone, I can't help it," Kashyap said.
"So, let me recover and 2017 will be the year for me and I got the confidence also after reaching the semifinals at Korea. But after dislocating my shoulder at PBl, I was completely messed up," he added.
To recover from the knee injury, he also went to the extent of shifting to Bangalore. He recovered and made a comeback in the later half of the year and reached the semifinals at Korea.
Just when he was raring to go in the new season, he dislocated his shoulder at the PBl while playing a match against Prannoy at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here.
"It was my right hand and again I had a three months break. There was a long period of bed rest and then there was the rehab. During this time, I lost it, I didn't know how I will ever play if I can't smash.
"But I had good friends and support of the doctor and physio. I completely followed what they told me to do. I took one day at a time and slowly I started getting my confidence back," added the first Indian male shuttler to reach the men's singles quarterfinals at the london Olympics.
After recovering again, Kashyap played at the China Open but he ended up pulling his hamstring.
"It was difficult for me to do the training program that the new coach had decided for rest of the players. I tried to do that and I pulled my hamstring just 10 days before the Thailand Open," he said.
Kashyap played at Thailand before entering a training program, which was specifically designed for him by chief coach Pullela Gopichand. It was only during the two weeks before the Australian Open that Gopi sir tweaked my training program here and there because he knew I am an experienced player and the program worked for me," said Kashyap, who had beaten Japan's Kazumasa Sakai, who had reached the finals at Indonesia the week before.
Kashyap will now be in another race of earning a place in the national team to defend his title at the Commonwealth Games next year.
"It is a good result after what seems like ages. But I know I am still in the process of getting back to my best," he signs off.