Busan: India's ace shuttler Pullela Gopichand overcame some anxious moments before quelling the challenge of his Thai opponent to move into the quarter-finals of the badminton singles in the Asian Games on Friday.

Gopichand, who appeared a trifle tentative in the early stages of the contest, had to dig deep into his reserves in the first game but got into his groove soon after to register a 17-15, 15-6 victory over Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana to keep his medal hopes alive.

The former All England champion Gopichand will now clash with second seed Seung Mo Shon of South Korea on Saturday for a place in the semi-finals.

Ponsana started off well by keeping the pressure on Gopichand as the two players went neck and neck till 15-15 in the first game. But the Thai could not keep his nerves in the crucial stages.

Gopichand only had himself to blame for making things difficult committing a number of unforced errors in the first game and was distinctly lucky to scrape through it.

But the story was quite different in the second as the Indian lifted his game by a few notches giving Ponsana no chance at all to stage a comeback. After wriggling out of the close first game, there was virtually no stopping him as he played a near flawless game in the second game.

The only other Indian in the fray, Abhinn Shyam Gupta had bowed out in the first round on Thursday, falling prey to Indonesia's world champion Hendrawan 5-15, 5-15.

PTI