Parupalli Kashyap, who became the first Indian male shuttler to reach the quarterfinals of Olympics, will have a daunting task of dethroning top seed and world No 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia if he wants to reach the semis.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Kashyap, on Wednesday, saw off Sri Lanka's Niluka Karunaratne 21-14 15-21 21-9, while Chong Wei tamed world No 6 Simon Santoso of Indonesia 21-12 21-8 in their respective pre-quarterfinal matches at the Wembley Arena.
Saina in quarters
Saina Nehwal also joined Kashyap in the quarters later in the day, beating Yao Jie of the Netherlands 21-14, 21-16. Saina has effortlessly matched her 2008 Beijing performance, where she became the first Indian shuttler to reach the quarters.
Kashyap doesn't have a good record against Chong Wei. The Indian was beaten by the Malaysian in straight-games during Denmark Open in January early this year.
{{/usCountry}}Kashyap doesn't have a good record against Chong Wei. The Indian was beaten by the Malaysian in straight-games during Denmark Open in January early this year.
{{/usCountry}}But the 25-year-old has improved after that and he would look to continue his recent run, when he beat world No. 3 Chen Long in the Indonesia Super Series and defeated world No. 11 Tien Minh Nguyen in a group B stage to reach the pre-quarters.
Chong Wei, on the other hand, came into the tournament after a hiatus of 10 weeks following his ankle injury in May and he looked rusty in his opening match, where he was stretched to three games by world No. 45 Finn Ville Lang.