Parupalli Kashyap was shown visions of hell by Sri Lanka's Niluka Karunaratne at the Wembley badminton courts today, forcing the Indian to rethink his strategy. Instead of attacking too much, he started playing long rallies, and then looking for an opening. It worked. Kashyap won the match in three games to become the first Indian male badminton player to make quarterfinals of the Olympic Games.

Kashyap, ranked No. 21 in the world, beat Karunaratne 21-14, 15-21, 21-9 in 66 minutes.

The first 19 minutes did not portend the struggle Kashyap was to undergo at the hands of Karunaratne, No. 48 in the world rankings. Karunaratne is a dogged player who reached the pre-quarterfinals after shocking world No. 8 Kenichi Tago of Japan to top his group. Kashyap, thus, knew that the Sri Lankan is no slouch on the court. Karunaratne, in fact, edged ahead 7-4 in the first game, but Kashyap caught up with him and then overtook him, winning 13 of the next 17 points to close out the game.

The change of sides seemed to impede the 25-year-old from Hyderabad. The Sri Lankan raised his game, retrieving everything Kashyap could throw at him and Kashyap became frustrated and erratic. In the blink of an eye, the Sri Lankan build a 10-point lead at 18-8. Kashyap fought hard, saving eight game points before Karunaratne won it to equalise the match at 1-1.

Normality was restored in the third game, which Kashyap won with ease in 21 minutes, building up a 12-point lead at one stage.

"In the second game he started well and retrieved all my shots," Kashyap said later. "I was not getting my winners. I felt that the other side was slower, so after the first game my smashes were not going as effectively as during the first game."

"I was getting confused and tired because I was doing all the attacking and he was standing and retrieving the shuttle," he added. "And I was running all over. So I was getting tired, and in tiredness I made a lot of mistakes."

Kashyap figured out the formula to overcome Karunaratne late in the first game. "I realised that I had to change my game, and I started playing longer rallies," the Hyderabad player added. "In the second game I won seven points in a row, and that gave me a lot of confidence."

He'd need to take a lot of that confidence into the next round, where he's likely to face world No. 2 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, who faces Indonesia's Simon Santoso in the pre-quarterfinals.

India ace Saina Nehwal warmed up for the tough battle ahead with a comfortable straight-game victory over Dutch Jie Yao as she reached the women's singles quarterfinals of the London Olympics, here today. The 22-year-old Saina brought some cheer to the Indian camp on an otherwise dismal day as she clinically dismantled her Netherlands opponents with a 21-14, 21-16 scoreline in a tussle which lasted 40 minutes. Saina kept her reputation intact by making it to the last-eight stage of the badminton competitions, that has been hit by scandal which had led to disqualification of four top teams. After two easy matches, it was a good warm up for Saina, who will take on either two-time All England champion Tine Baun of Denmark or Sayaka Sato of Japan in the quarterfinals. Up against the world No 20 Jie, Saina surged to a 11-5 lead and moved to the game point in a jiffy when the Dutch girl hit wide. The Chinese-born girl saved a few game points, mainly because of the error of judgement by Saina and a couple of loose shots but soon the Indian pocketed the game with a beautiful net play. — PTI

London, August 1
Manoj Kumar (64kg) notched up a comfortable opening win to take the total number of Indian boxers in the Olympic pre-quarterfinals to five after the completion of the first-round bouts here.

Manoj defeated Serdar Hudayberdiyev of Turkmenistan 13-7 at the ExCel arena late last night after L Devendro Singh (49kg) made a sensational Olympic debut by stopping Honduras' Bayron Molina Figueroa in less than three minutes of his bout.

Manoj started cautiously but gradually opened up to prevail over his opponent with a 13-7 verdict. The Indian pugilist did not exert himself too much in the opening round as he gauged the strategy of his opponent who also was quite content in defending. The score was tied 2-2 at the end of the opening round but Manoj gradually turned on the heat with deft punches and showed good reflexes to win the second round 7-3. — PTI

Deepika Kumari, eliminated from the women's individual archery competition on Wednesday morning, wore her pain on her face shortly after her exit. The 18-year-old, normally a supremely confident young woman, seemed wistful and gnawed at by regret. Which was natural, for the Indian archers are not going to bring back a medal back to India. Deepika, knocked out in the first individual round, was India's last and most robust hope of a medal.

Deepika is the No. 1 woman archer in the world, but she was rendered a rookie by the conditions at the Lord's cricket ground, venue of the competition. Rankings have counted for nought for India here - the women's team was ranked No. 2 in the world and the men's team No. 3, but both performed miserably.

Deepika fared no better, losing to the 37th ranked Amy Oliver 2-6 in the 1/32 Eliminations stage. The individual event is fought on a best-of-five set format. Each set has three arrows, worth a maximum 10 points each, and the winner of a set is awarded two points. The match didn't go the distance as Deepika's challenge disintegrated completely by the fourth set.

Deepika later said she was troubled by the swirling wind, which changed direction without warning. According to her, this and the extremely unpredictably London weather were the main reasons for her disappointment.

Her numbers were not worthy of the world No. 1 - not a single 10 from the 12 arrows she shot in the four sets, and one 8 in each set, in each of which she scored 26 points.

Oliver, on the other hand, was hardly troubled and shot more like a world No. 1 than No. 37. She had three 10s, including one perfect 10. That the two ended up with 104 points each was only a matter for trivia, only of academic interest. It was caused by a terrible error Oliver made in the second set, when she scored a 4 with her third arrow. Oliver won three sets 27-26, 27-26 and 28-26, losing the second 22-26.

"There was a lot of wind and it was swirling a lot," Deepika said later. "This was the first time I was facing such conditions. It confused me a lot and before I could adjust, it was all over."

"One has to go out there in the middle and see how difficult the conditions were," she added. "It was my first Olympics, so I was looking to give my best and do well."

Deepika wished such conditions were available in India. "Wherever it is windy there, the winds are so strong that it would spoil our archery," the Ranchi teenager said. "And the weather... It's changing every day here... Sometimes it is windy, sometimes it is raining, sometimes it is sunny," she said. She's not the first to be bewildered by the London weather, and certainly not the last. She was just India's last archery hope at London 2012, a hope that's ended too soon.

London, August 1
Defensive lapses led to India's second successive loss in the Olympic Games men's hockey competition as they suffered a humiliating 1-3 defeat at the hands of New Zealand, here today.

Conceding soft penalty corners and allowing the rival strikers plenty of leeway inside the circle, India's defence allowed New Zealand to call the shots even after taking an early lead.

Sandeep Singh's second minute penalty corner conversion kept India ahead for 10 minutes before the 'Black Sticks' hit back to score three goals in the first session through Andrew Hayward (12th minute), Phillip Burrows (24th) and Nicholas Wilson (29th) to leave the Indians shattered.

India's efforts to bounce back in the second session saw them frequently break into the rival circle, but were unable to change the scoreline.

New Zealand, winners of the Azlan Shah Cup two months ago, had lost their opening match 0-2 to South Korea, while India suffered a 2-3 reversal against The Netherlands, who now lead the Group B table with six points from two matches after posting a 3-1 victory over Belgium today. — PTI

London, August 1
Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian of all time, the US 4x200m freestyle relay gold giving him a 19th medal after bittersweet silver in the 200m butterfly. Phelps' record of 15 Olympic gold medals includes eight from his spectacular Beijing Games campaign as well as six from Athens in 2004.

He also won two bronze in Athens and has won two silver in London. South Africa's Chad le Clos denied Phelps' bid for a 200m butterfly treble by a hair yesterday, but silver allowed the US superstar the consolation of matching Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina's record of 18 Olympic medals. Phelps returned an hour later and teamed with Ryan Lochte, Conor Dwyer and Ricky Berens to capture the 4x200m free relay gold ahead of France and China.For most of the race, it looked like Phelps would make his 18th career medal gold.

But Le Clos, third at the final turn but clinging stubbornly to Phelps and Takeshi Matsuda, relentlessly pressed his challenge and plunged past Phelps at the finish to win in 1min 52.96sec.

Phelps, who had led at every turn in a quest to become the first man to win the same Olympic swimming event at three successive Games, was just five-hundredths of a second back in 1:53.01 and Matsuda settled for bronze in 1:53.21.

Le Clos, 20, thrust his body out of the water in delight upon seeing the scoreboard. Then he perched on a lane rope with his head in his hands as he tried to absorb his achievement in his first Olympics.

Phelps has dominated the 200m fly for a decade. He owns the four fastest times in history and his world record of 1min 51.51sec is more than one second faster than the second-best performer in history. — AFP

With three medals, two Gold and a Silver, already to his name in London, American swimmer Ryan Lochte is fast becoming more than just the man who beat Michael Phelps during qualifications. Lochte, as part of the American team holds the world record in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay (long course). Individually, he currently holds the world record in the 200-meter individual medley (long and short course) and the 400-meter individual medley (short course).

How did you feel about beating Michael Phelps towin gold in the 400m individual medley on Saturday?

Iwas in kind of shock at the end. I knew I was in good form going into these games. I could hear the fans screaming and having my family here helped me.

How did you assess your performance in the 4x100m freestyle final on Sunday?

The100m freestyle, I don't really swim it, I haven't swum the 100m in a longtime. I was just really excited. I think I over swam the last50m. Sprinting definitely takes it out of you.

Were you and the team happy with silver?

We were able to get a medal so I guess that's good. We are the best four guys. We went out there to win, but we came up short. When we come out of the blocks we always want to win.

What went wrong in the men's 200m freestyle finalon Monday (he finished fourth)?

That's a solid time for me. I can go a lot faster - I don't really know where I fell off. I guess I took it out a little too fast. I knew if Iwanted to be in the race I had to go out a little. Next time I won't make that same mistake. This is one of the deepest fields ever. First to eighth is about one second difference.

What did you make of Ye Shiwen's display in the women's400m individual medley final on Saturday?

Yeah,we were talking about that at dinner. If she was there with me, she might have beaten me.

Phelps broke an all-time Olympic record with his 19th medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay; what is it like swimming with and against him?

To me, Michael is just another swimmer. He's just another person that I've got to go up against and race. He's one of the toughest competitors I've ever had a race against and I love racing against him.

How does being considered the world's best swimmeraffect your mentality?

I'm the defending world champion from last year, but that was last year. I was the world's best swimmer, everyone said at the time, but I put myself down at the very bottom so that I have a goal to put myself back up to the verytop.

You used to have a reputation as too laid-back anda joker. Are you more serious now?

If Idon't be myself, then I won't swim to my best. I need to live life. I can't doanything different. Life is too short. You don't know when it's going to end,so you've got to live life to the fullest. But I train hard now, swimming 18kma day, five to six hours a day, and six days in a week.

How has your style or training regime changed overthe years?

I'm alot stronger. I can pull a lot more water than I've ever pulled before, and Ithink that's one of the reasons why I'm so much faster than 2008. I'm lifting an 850-pound tyre and dragging a 525-pound boat chain 60 feet in training.

Some have suggested you're romantically involvedwith Australian swimmer Blair Evans - is that the case?

I've known her for a while. She's a good friend of mine and I haven't seen her in a year, so I was excited to see her. So those pictures that you guys got, it may have come off like that's my romance for the Olympics, but it's not like that.

Have you thought about what you might do when yourcareer is over?

After swimming is all said and done and I hang up the Speedo, I'm definitely going to go into fashion, designing my own clothing line. — PMG

Won 6 Olympic medals (including 3 gold) at previous Olympics in 2004 and 2008. Set World Records in the 200-meter backstroke in both 25-meter pool (2006) and 50-meter pool (2007) versions Won 2 Gold & 2 Bronze at 2008 Beijing Olympics Was named World Swimmer of the year in both 2010 and 2011 (after Phelps had won the previous four years)

Wimbledon, August 1
Three times on a single point, Serena Williams hit a serve that clipped the net cord before plopping into the service box for a let, a sequence that drew giggles from the Centre Court crowd.

Otherwise there was no way to slow Williams on Wednesday. She hit 12 aces and repeatedly rocketed her groundstrokes past No. 13-seeded Vera Zvonareva to win 6-1, 6-0 and reach the Olympic quarterfinals.

Swinging lustily with almost every shot, the No. 4-seeded Williams hit 32 winners to three for the Russian, who also lost when they met in the 2010 Wimbledon final. Williams swept the final 10 games and was done in only 51 minutes.

"I was just playing unbelievable," Williams said. "I was nervous going into the match and I didn't speak to anyone and I had a bad practice. I had no idea I would play like this."

Roger Federer endured two rain delays and a shaky moment late in the first set to reach the quarterfinals by beating Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 7-5, 6-3. Serving at 5-all in the first set, the No. 1-seeded Federer faced three break points and erased them all. He then broke and was in control from there. A four-time Olympian, Federer has yet to win a singles medal, although he and Swiss teammate Stanislas Wawrinka did win the gold in doubles in 2008. Federer's playing his first tournament since winning a record-tying seventh Wimbledon title.

While play was interrupted by rain on other courts, Williams worked under Wimbledon's roof, and the conditions clearly suited her. She whacked winners even from behind the baseline, and more than once spun on one foot after smacking a shot, mixing a little body English with plenty of brute force.

Williams hit a Wimbledon record 102 aces en route to her fifth title at the All England Club last month, and the shot remains a dominant force, especially on grass. She hit three consecutive aces against Zvonareva and lost only seven points in six service games. In the second set, the crowd tried to coax a comeback from the Russian. But when she began tossing her racket in frustration, cheers for her turned to jeers. And fans applauded Williams' domination. "We love you, Serena!" a spectator near the top of the stadium shouted during the final changeover. Williams continued to stare sternly, but she wore a grin moments later as she walked off the court in triumph, waving to the stands dotted with US flags. — Reuters

London, August 1
Eight badminton players were dramatically disqualified from Olympic competition on Wednesday after a scandal over "throwing" matches left the sport in uproar. Four pairs in the women's doubles competition -- one from China, one from Indonesia and two from South Korea -- were barred after being hit by disciplinary charges of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) took action.

A source with knowledge of the proceedings confirmed that the eight women had been disqualified for trying to deliberately lose matches in the round robin phase to manipulate the knockout draw. The eight badminton players at the heart of the scandal had been charged with "not using one's best efforts to win a match" and "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport."

Angry spectators jeered and booed the players after they appeared to deliberately serve into the net or hit the shuttlecock long or wide. — PTI

Not long after their Tuesday night defeat in the second round of the men's double competition, the Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna seemed to be stunned into shock and disbelief. They refused to answer the Indian media's queries in the informal 'mixed zone', where sportspersons mingle with the press immediately after end of action.

It was understandable - a media inquisition immediately after such a dispiriting defeat, which forever buried at least Bhupathi's hopes of an Olympics medal, must be extremely unwelcome. It would be doubly so if they themselves had been part of - and had perhaps instigated - a very public campaign about who would partner whom in the doubles events at the Olympics.

When they did appear in the press conference to discuss their defeat, there were signs that tears had been shed. Bhupathi's eyes were red - had he been crying? "Just some chilli powder," Bopanna quipped, to laughter in the hall.

The defeat was no laughing matter, though, to the Indian fans who have been thronging Wimbledon in large numbers, in expectation of at least one medal from the four doubles teams India fielded. Bhupathi and Bopanna had lost in straight sets, 3-6, 4-6, to the French duo of Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet.

The Indians were seeded seventh while the Frenchmen were entered the draw courtesy a wild card. Bhupathi and Bopanna, both doubles specialists, have been training with an eye on the Olympics. They were the favourites in this clash, but the Olympics tend to create new pairs who could, on their day, outplay the specialists. This is what happened on Tuesday.

The Indians had played a splendid match in the first round on Monday, when they beat Max Mirnyi and Alexander Bury in three sets without dropping serve. Against the French, though, they were quite erratic - they made 37 unforced errors in the match, often at critical moments. Conversely, the Frenchmen played the bigger points well to comfortably secure the match in 77 minutes.

After losing the first set in 39 minutes, the Indians went 3-0 up in the second after they broke Gasquet in the second game and Bhupathi held serve. However, Bopanna was broken twice, in the fifth and ninth games, as both he and Bhupathi made crucial errors. "I guess I'll have to die without an Olympic medal," Bhupathi later said. "It's definitely not something that's going to be in the cupboard but we gave it a good shot, and the last four times as well (at the previous Olympics)."

He added that he was extremely disappointed with his own play, and that it was Bopanna who had been the leading player. "Under pressure I have been able to deliver and today I wasn't," Bhupathi said. "All credit to Rohan, the last two matches he played the best two matches of the year so far. I feel I have let the team down today." "The mind wanted it, the heart wanted it, but the limbs stopped, so unfortunately we came out on the bad end of the stick," the 38-year-old added.

The other Indian men's team, Leander Paes and Vishnu Vardhan, was scheduled to play in the pre-quarterfinals late on Wednesday, against second seeds Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Michael Llodra. Paes and Sania Mirza also play later on Wednesday, rain and wind willing. They represent India's most realistic hope of a medal from tennis here.