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Kashyap reaches men’s singles quarter-finals

Parupalli Kashyap played with an assured authority and confidence for a third day running to reach the quarter-finals of the Olympics for the first time in his career. Niluka Karunaratne made a valiant effort to discover a way past the Indian, but he could only take Kashyap the distance. India’s top male badminton player completed a convincing 21-14 15-21 21-9 defeat of the resilient Sri Lankan in a see-saw match that lasted exactly an hour at the Wembley Arena in London.

Kashyap was slow off the blocks falling behind quickly to 1-6 to start proceedings. The 21st ranked Indian recovered quickly to win four points in a row to edge closer to the 27 year old from Galle. He took control of the game before pausing for the break at 11-7.

Karunaratne started to drive hard to the Indian’s backhand, but Kashyap was equal to the task as he often ran underneath the bird to go crosscourt with his forehand. The Indian No.1 goes about his business with a certain degree of fluidity and his nimble coverage of the court was making it difficult for Niluka to discover space on the court. Kashyap won the first game in 20 minutes, with 13 of the points coming on his own serve.

But then the match took an unexpected turn. With his back to the wall and his ploy to attack Kashyap’s backhand not yielding the desired results, Niluka took to aggression in his quest to wrest the initiative. Kashyap helped his opponent by letting his concentration drift, allowing the Sri Lankan back into the contest.

As in the first game, Niluka raced away into an early lead but this time Kashyap did not find the game to respond. The errors off the Indian’s racket came thick and fast, even as the rejuvenated Niluka started catching the lines with alarming regularity. Niluka flew into a 9-3 lead, which grew to 15-6 in quick time.

Niluka made Kashyap pay for his errors to build a massive twelve point lead to reach game point. But the Indian stalled his opponent on game point, as the Sri Lankan suffered a bout of nerves. Amidst mounting excitement of an improbable comeback, Kashyap reeled in seven straight points to rally to 20-15. He had to drop one eventually, and that is just what happened when he found the net while trying to feather his way across the net to end the game in 19 minutes.

Niluka burst out in exuberance when he moved to 4-3 after somehow managing to stay in a point despite looking down and out at least twice during the rally. The Sri Lankan even drew a warning from the Chair for his celebration, but he would have happily traded it anyway for the dose of confidence the point must have given him anyways. Meanwhile, Gopichand was calling on his ward for calm amidst the storm.

It was just as well that Niluka had indulged in his moment of celebration. Kashyap had regained his composure at the end of the second game and he wasn’t going to be denied by one bad point. Slowly and assiduously, Kashyap started to extend the rallies to tire his opponent and build a handy 10-5 lead. It was now the turn of Niluka to make the errors and at the interval break Kashyap was six to the good and looking set to finish on a high.

Kashyap got to 13-6 with a cross court smash that was not just a demonstration of the Indian’s power but also affirmation that the Sri Lankan was losing his legs rapidly. When Niluka caught the net at 7-15 on an easy carry, it was obvious that it was now a matter of time before Kashyap rallied home. The 49th ranked Karunaratne was dropping into the net far too often and another of those errors handed Kashyap match point. The match was in the bag on the next point when the shuttle flew wide of Niluka’s faltering forehand.

It was consummate badminton match in which the players made good use of the court, often combining powerful drives to the back of court with a feathery touch to draw the opponent forward in an effort to create the space needed to finish the point. It was a wonderful workout for the Indian too – the average rally lasted 9 strokes and the longest was 56 strokes – ahead of the sterner tests that lay ahead. Kashyap has now met the target he set himself ahead of the Olympics. One can expect him to play with freedom now and bring his repertoire to bear in causing an upset in the quarter-finals. His likely next opponent is the top seeded Malaysian Lee Chong Wei.

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