A gritty Parupalli Kashyap beat seventh-seed Vietnamese Nguyen Tien Minh in a battle lasting an hour to cruise into the quarter-finals of the Asian Badminton Championship while the mixed doubles pair of V Diju and Jwala Gutta bowed out in the second round at the Suwon stadium in Korea.
Kashyap emerged the lone Indian survivor after beating Nguyen 21-19, 17-21, 21-11 in the pre-quarter finals to set up a clash with fourth-seed Chinese Bao Chunlai, who beat Kuan Beng Hong of Malaysia 21-16, 10-21, 21-13 in another match.
Diju and Gutta failed to carry on their recent impressive form, losing 17-21, 21-11, 18-21 to the Malaysian pair of Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying in a gruelling 41-minute second round encounter.
Yesterday, Kashyap had beaten 15th seed Hong Ji Hoon of Korea 21-14, 7-21, 21-19 in a 53-minute match to sail into the pre-quarters but compatriot Anand Pawar went down to Minh 21-16, 15-21, 16-21 in a 51-minute clash.
India's men doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Thomas Sanave also made an early exit after losing 18-21, 19-21 to the Chinese pair of Xu Chen and Guo Zhendong in the first round.