WUHAN (CHINA), April 22 (PTI): India�s Parupalli Kashyap played one of the longest matches of his career as he roared into the pre-quarterfinals with a gruelling three-game win over Chinese Taipei�s Jen Hao Hsu at the USD 200,000 Badminton Asia Championship here today.
In a men�s singles contest that lasted for more than an-hour-and-a-half, Kashyap played out of his skin as he fought back to see off Hsu 15-21, 21-18, 21-19 at the Wuhan Sports Center Gymnasium.
Commonwealth Games champion, Kashyap will next take on seventh seed Chinese Zhengming Wang, who beat Thailand�s Boonsak Ponsana 21-10, 21-12 in another match.
The Indian has lost to Wang thrice, while defeated him once at the 2014 India Super Series.
Two-time bronze medallist at the World Championship, P V Sindhu, too, made a positive start after missing in action due to an injury. She took just 16 minutes to dispose off Uzbekistan�s Anait Khurshudyan 21-6, 21-5 in a women�s singles match here.
The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Sindhu, seeded eighth, will next meet Macao�s U Teng Iok.
Indian men�s doubles pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Jerry Chopra failed to cross the second round hurdle as they lost 15-21, 17-21 to fourth seeds Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa of Japan.
Another men�s doubles combination of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, meanwhile, got a walk over to enter the third round.
The men�s singles match between Kashyap and Hsu saw a lot of drama as the electricity went off when the Indian was leading 20-19 in the decider. Around 10 to 15 minutes time was lost in the process, but when the lights were on, Kashyap didn�t waste any time as his serve earned him the match point.
