London, July 28 (IANS) Parupalli Kashyap gave India its first win in badminton while the mixed doubles pair of V. Diju and Jwala Gutta went down in their opening group match of the London Olympics at the Wembley Arena here Saturday.
Olympic debutant Kashyap beat Yuhan Tan of Belgium in straight games in the men's singles. Kashyap won 21-14, 21-12 in 38 minutes. It was the Indian's second win over Yuhan in three encounters.
The 25-year-old Kashyap took a seven point lead early in the first game only to give away a few. However, the nippy shuttler kept the score-line ticking and sealed the game with his second game point.
The Indian, ranked World No.21, played the second game with authority as he romped to a 12-point lead and easily sealed the game 21-12 in 14 minutes.
The Hyderabadi next faces World No.11 and 10th seed Nguyen Tien Minh of Vietnam. Kashyap will need to beat Minh, against whom the Indian has a 2-3 head-to-head record, to advance into the knockout stages.
Earlier, Diju and Jwala could not put up a fight against Indonesia's Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsi and lost their mixed doubles opening group match.
The Indian pair was thrashed 16-21, 12-21 by the third seeds in 27 minutes in their Group C match. This was their second consecutive loss to the Indonesian pair, after last year's French Open.
Diju and Jwala will need to win their next two group matches to qualify for the knockouts which begin Wednesday. Only two of the four teams will qualify for the quarter-finals from each of the four groups.
The Indian World No.13 pair will next face Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhl of Denmark Sunday whom they have never beaten in their two meetings yet.
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