Shuttler P Kashyap on Wednesday became the first Indian man in history to reach the quarterfinals of the Olympic Games after securing a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Sri Lanka's Niluka Karunaratne at the Wembley Arena.

The 21st ranked Kashyap had to bring in all his experience and craft into play to quell the strong challenge of his rival, ranked 27 places below him in the world chart, 21-14 15-21 21-9 in the pre-quarterfinal clash that lasted 66 minutes.

In the first game, Karunaratne went ahead to a 7-4 lead but Kashyap got the measure of his opponent quickly and showed flashes of experience to first narrow down the gap and then build a healthy six-point lead at 17-11.