The 21st ranked Kashyap outplayed his rival, ranked 11 places above him, 21-9 21-14 in the second and final Group D match of the men’s singles event.
By virtue of today’s win, Kashyap finished on top of Group D, having beaten Belgium’s Tan Yuhan in an earlier game.
Saina, ranked fifth in the world, too had little difficulty in disposing off the challenge of Belgium’s Lianne Tan 21-4 21-14 in a Group E women’s singles match last night.
Against his higher ranked opponent today, Kashyap played aggressively right from the word go and never let the Vietnamese shuttler settle down.
Kashyap set up the points beautifully by opening the court and executed the winners with ease.
In all the Indian took 35 minutes to down his opponent and move to the next stage.
The match featured long rallies with both the players playing some fierce flat shots, but it was the Indian who scored points consistently.
Minh tried to claw his way back in the second game but Kasyhap never let the momentum slip and clinched the issue with a cross-court smash to the left of his rival.
As expected Kashyap was delighted with the easy win but rued that his father could not be there to see him dominate the match.
“I expected to win but not that easily. Not that it was an easy game – we had some long rallies and when he gets into his rhythm he can be very dangerous.” Kashyap said.
“My dad didn’t get a UK visa in time. I don’t know what’s going on with the British Embassy. I feel really bad. I really wanted him to be here to see me play, especially in a match like this – to see me beat a player like this. I really hope that he’ll get here tomorrow.”
Talking about his rival Minh today, Kashyap said he was not an easy player to beat. “Once he gets two or three points in a row he’s very dangerous, so I really tried to keep it to two points only. If he gets five or six he can run away with the game. I trained really hard for this competition and I think I won because of my fitness levels,” he said.
Among other Indian shuttlers in the fray, Commonwealth Games gold medallist pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa also set the Wembley Arena ablaze when they stunned world number 10 Yu Chin Chien and Wen Hsing Cheng of Chinese Taipei 25-23 16-21 21-18 in a Group B round-robin match of the women’s doubles late last night.
However, Jwala and Ashwini had to toil hard to register the win. The Indian pair was pushed to the backfoot after they lost their first group match but the duo then played out of its skin to keep themselves afloat in the competition.
World number 20 Jwala and Ashwini blew an early 11-6 lead to allow the Chinese Taipei pair to claw back and earn a game point at 20-19 in the first game. The Indian combo then saved game point thrice before moving into a game point themselves. Read more →
Having won the men’s doubles first round of Olympic match against Jean Julien Rojer and Robin Haase of The Netherlands, India’s tennis legend Leander Paes was all praise for his unheralded partner Vishnu Vardhan, stating that he felt extremely comfortable with the youngster on the court.”Any player who ages gracefully needs a great partner. And for me it’s the first match. I am really impressed with how comfortable we (with Vishnu) feel together on the court,” said Paes after the match on Monday night.
Orozco, the national champion, had just landed on his rear end on his vault — yet another error in a mistake-laden Monday night that unexpectedly ended with the Americans out of the medals and the top teams confused.
Samsung Omnia M has now been officially launched in the country for Rs. 18,650. Users can avail the device on Samsung India’s eStore for Rs. 16,400.
