India's Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the quarterfinals of the men's singles badminton event after ekeing out a hard-fought win over World No 5 Jan Jorgensen of Denmark at the Rio Olympics here on Monday.
Coming into the match with a 1-2 head-to-head record, Srikanth dished out an aggressive performance to defeat Jorgensen 21-19, 21-19.
He thus joined Parupalli Kashyap, who was the first Indian men's singles player to reach the quarterfinals of the Olympics at london Games in 2012.
The 23-year-old Guntur lad, ranked 11th in the world, will next take on two-time Olympic champion lin Dan on Tuesday.
In a battle between equals, Jorgensen moved to a 3-1 lead before Srikanth turned the tables reaching 4-3. The duo engaged in a fierce battle of supremacy and moved neck and neck before Srikanth managed to enter the break with a 11-9 advantage.
Srikanth opened up a narrow 17-14 lead at one stage. His sharp returns earned him a lot of points even as the Dane kept breathing down his neck with some angled strokes which the Indian found difficult to negotiate.
At 18-17, an aggressive rally ended with Srikanth placing the shuttle away from Jorgensen but he hit long next before moving into the game point with a cross court smash, which Jorgensen could not reach.
Jorgensen saved one when Srikanth made a bad judgement and left the shuttle. However, he sealed it next with another powerful cross court smash.
Srikanth carried on the momentum into the second game and dictated the tempo of the fast-paced rallies to reach 8-4 at one stage.