Kashyap, Guru & Thulasi reach quarter-finals at CWG

Indian shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap, R M V Gurusaidutt and P C Thulasi entered the quarter-finals of badminton competition at the 20th Commonwealth Games.

Delhi Games bronze medallist, Kashyap took just 24 minutes to end the misery of his rival Jeff Tho of Australia 21-7, 21-8, while Thulasi thrashed Rachel Honderich of Canada 21-12, 21-7 in a 31-minute match.

Gurusaidutt also notched up an easy 21-13, 21-9 win over Andrew D'Souza of Canada in a men's singles match that lasted 27 minutes at the Emirates Arena.

World No. 22 Kashyap will now take on Daren Liew, ranked 47th. A former top 10 player, Liew has beaten Kashyap twice in the past but the Indian had won the last time they met at Denmark Open in 2013 after the Malaysian retired midway.

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Guru will face World No. 18 and top seed Chong Wei Feng of Malaysia. The Indian has always played three games against him but lost 0-4 so far.

Thulasi will be up against World No. 33 Jing Yi Tee, a player against whom she has lost twice in the past.

After his victory, Kashyap said: "I knew I could win. I just needed to get myself going and get into the rhythm. When you practice and when you're on for a tournament, it's different and you can't slack off."

"I just wanted to get this match over with. Andrew is a fighter. If I gave him the chance, he'd have come back," Gurusaidutt said.

On facing No.1 seed Chong Wei Feng in the next round, Guru said: "I've always had close matches with him. This time I hope it's in my favour."

"He plays sharp strokes a lot so I've worked on getting the net strokes into my training. I just need to have confidence in myself now."

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Dipa Karmarkar scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman gymnast to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games after she bagged a bronze in the vault event.

The 20-year-old from Tripura collected 14.366 points to finish third in the women's vault final at the SSE Hydro.

The gold went to England's Claudia Fragapane who got 14.633 points while Elsabeth Black was second with 14.433 points.

In the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, Ashish Kumar became the first Indian gymnast to win a medal at the CWG by winning a silver in vault and bronze in floor events.

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Rising Indian table tennis player Manika Batra fought her way into the women's singles quarter-finals  while top paddler Sharath Kamal entered the

quarter-finals of men's doubles and mixed doubles.

Batra, the 19-year-old from Delhi, recovered from a two game deficit to beat Canadian teenager Anqi Luo 11-13, 11-7, 8-11, 11-2, 11-7, 11-9 at the Scotstoun Sports Campus.

The 159th-ranked Indian meets World No.41 Ye Lin of Singapore in the quarter-finals.

In the other categories, Sharath made the men's doubles quarter-finals partnering Anthony Amalraj and mixed doubles with Shamini Kumaresan.

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Kamal-Kumaresan defeated Australia's David Powell and Jian Fang Lay 11-6, 8-11, 4-11, 13-11, 11-7 in the fourth round.

They take on England's Danny Reed and Kelly Sibley later in the day.

The pair of Kamal and Amalraj were too good for Ryan Jenkins and Stephen Jenkins of Wales in the men's doubles. The Indians won the third round match 11-8, 11-4, 11-9. They next play Englishmen Danny Reed for a place in the semifinals.

Harmeet Desai and Soumyajit Ghosh also entered the last eight stage with a 8-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-5 win over Northern Ireland's Paul McCreery and Ashley Robinson. They play the formidable Singapore pairing of Gao Ning and Li Hu in the quarter-finals.

Kamal, Ghosh and Desai are also scheduled to play their second round matches in the men's singles.