Kashyap upsets Nguyen, enters Olympics pre-quarters

Parupalli Kashyap scored a dominating straight games win over Vietnam’s Tien Minh Nguyen to progress to the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s singles event of the badminton competition at the London Olympics, here today. 21st ranked Kashyap outplayed his rival, ranked 11 places above him, 21-9 21-14 in the second and final Group D match. [caption id=“attachment_398357” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kashyap all smiles after the win. Reuters[/caption] Kashyap topped Group D to make the knockout stage, having beaten Tan Yuhan of Belgium in an earlier Group match. The Indian played aggressively right from the word go and never let his rival settle. Kashyap set up 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 Kashyap never let the momentum slip and clinched the issue with a cross-court smash to the left of his rival. PTI