Calgary, July 6 (IANS) Ace shuttler Parupalli Kashyap stormed into the mens singles semi-finals at the Canada Open Super 100 tournament here.

Sixth seed Kashyap beat France's Lucas Claerbout 12-21, 23-21, 24-22 in a quarterfinal lasting an hour and 16 minutes.

The former Commonwealth Games champion will take on Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu Wei, who is seeded fourth.

Reigning national champion Sourabh Verma, meanwhile, failed to make the semis, losing 15-21, 11-21 to Li Shi Feng of China.

Kashyap was on the back foot initially as Lucas opened up a 5-2 lead in the opening game. He won the game with ease but Kashyap made amends soon after, opening up a 8-4 lead.

But Lucas bounced back to take a slender 11-10 advantage at the break.

Kashyap, in the end, held his nerves to take the match to the decider.

In the final game, Lucas raced to a 6-1 lead but Kashyap fought hard and grabbed two match points.

Lucas saved both and countered well to make it 20-20. From there on it was a see saw battle which saw Kashyap eventually
grab three straight points and seal his place in the semi-finals.

--IANS dm/bg