Kashyap keeps India in hunt at World championship

Wildcard entrant P Kashyap notched up an easy win over Iranian Ali Shahhosseini to keep the tri-colour fluttering as India had a mixed day in the World Badminton Championship at the Gachibowli stadium in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

Kashyap smashed his way to a 21-9 21-13 win over Ali but it turned out to be a disappointing day for compatriot Arvind Bhat.

Bhat played his heart out before going down 14-21 21-19 22-24 to ninth seed Yu Hsing Hsieh of Chinese Taipei in an edge-of-the-seat first round match that lasted more than an hour.

It was also curtains for Sayale Gokhale in women's singles after the Indian lost 15-21 14-21 to Jie Yao of the Netherlands.

India's men's doubles pair of Tarun Kona and Arun Vishnu were also shown the door by 13th seed Chinese Taipei duo of Hung Ling Chen and Yu Lang Lin. The Indians lost 12-21 14-21 in just 21 minutes.

However, Akshay Dewalkar and Jishnu Sanyal had reasons to rejoice after they got a walkover from Thai pair Patipat Chalardchaleam and Nuttaphon Narkthong.

With the English team pulling out, Indian mixed doubles pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta also got a walkover from Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork and the local favourites would next take on 12th seed Polish pair of Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Kostiuczyk in the third round on Wednesday.

Among the top players in fray, world number four Indonesian Taufik Hidayat steamrolled Swiss Christian Boesiger 21-14 21-14 in 27 minutes, while 12th seed Malaysian Choong Hann Wong spanked Ville Lang of Finland 21-7 21-10 in 28 minutes.

Seven seed Chinese Lan Lu notched up an easy win over Larisa Griga of Ukraine 21-16 21-5 in the women's singles.

However, seventh seed Dane Joachim Persson suffered to a stunning 21-16 14-21 13-21 defeat against Japanese Kenichi Tago in a match that lasted 57 minutes.

Kashyap didn't give an inch away and opened a 10-3 lead to make Ali run all over the court before sealing the game in style.

In the second game, Ali tried to come back and played some good shots but it was the Indian who had the last laugh.

"It was an easy match but I am satisfied with my performance. The drift was faster from the other end but is okay, I will get used to it. It is just a build up the big second round match," said Kashyap, who had a mild cough and cold yesterday.

Earlier in the day, Arvind Bhat showed sparks of brilliance but the Bangalorean lost his gallant fight against ninth seed Yu Hsing Hsieh of Chinese Taipei.

Bhat couldn't negotiate the power-packed smashes of his rival and made some unforced errors to see the first game slip out of his hand.

The Indian, who lost to Hsing twice before, bounced back in the second game and opened up a lead of 5-1 and then extended it to 11-5 but Hsing clawed back at 19-17 before Arvind sealed the game with a cross-court smash at 21-19.

Arvind gave the Taiwanese a dose of his own medicine as he produced some powerful smashes and soft drops to nail his rival.

At 1-1, the third game turned to be a see-saw affair as both the shuttler fought it tooth and nail.

Hsing drew first blood and Arvind was left to do the catch up act but the Bangalorean bounced back from 17-20, saving three match points and leveled at 20-20 and moved 21-21, 22-22 before another unforced error put paid to hopes.

"I deserved to win today but I didn't. He has some fast smashes up his sleeve but he is beatable," Bhat later said.

"I committed some unforced errors. It happened all through out my career but I'll bounce back," he said.

"The other side of the court was playing well and I wanted to get at least 8-11 in the last game before changing side. I played well but may be at the last end, I played safe and also had no luck. I should have tightened my defense," he added.