Parupalli Kashyap overcame a second game reversal to beat Malaysia’s Daren Liew 21-17, 11-21, 21-12 and reach the quarter-finals of the Korea Open Super 500 badminton tournament in Incheon on Thursday.
The world No 30, who was promoted from the qualifiers following a spate of withdrawals, is the only Indian left in the tournament after all others lost in the opening round on Wednesday.
Kashyap kept pace with Liew in the opening game during the first few points and then raced to a 16-11 lead by clinching nine of the 12 points from 7-8 down. The Malaysian managed to close the gap at 16-15 and there was just a point separating the two before the Indian claimed three straight points to pocket the first game.
Kashyap began by winning the first two points in the second game but then Liew bagged 13 straight points to take a sizeable lead and never looked back from there on.
The Indian needed to show intent to fight back from that reversal and he did that in style by winning 11 straight points to overturn a 1-2 deficit into a 12-2 lead. All he had to do then was to maintain the pressure and he pocketed the game and the match in 56 minutes.
He will now face the winner of the match between eighth seed Anthony Ginting of Indonesia and former world No 2 Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark.