P Kashyap and national champion Sourabh Verma registered hard fought wins over their respective Chinese opponents to reach the quarter-finals of the Canada Open Super 100 badminton tournament in Calgary on Thursday night.
Kashyap, the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, got the better of 2018 World University champion Ren Peng Bo 23-21, 21-23, 21-19 while Verma defeated Sun Fei Xiang 21-13, 15-21, 21-15 in the pre-quarterfinals.
The 32-year-old Kashyap fought back from a 9-4 deficit in the opening game before earning two game points. Peng Bo saved both but the Indian converted the third to draw first blood.
Kashyap was in much better position in the second game and had a 19-16 lead before the Chinese claimed four straight points to earn a game point. The Indian saved that point and had a match point of his own but could not avoid the match going into the decider.
He, however, made sure that there were no such hiccups in the decider as he converted the third match point to advance after an hour and 24 minutes battle. He will now face Frenchman Lucas Claerbout for a place in the semi-final.
Later in the day, Verma came up with an inspired performance in the decider against Sun, winning 11 straight points from 4-4 and then consolidated his position to set up a last eight clash against another Chinese youngster Li Shi Feng.