One of the things which light-heavyweight boxer Dinesh Kumar had emphasised after his first-round demolition of Czech Republic’s Vladimir Reznicek was playing back-to-back matches in the tournament. Unlike many others who prefer recovering from one bout before getting into the ring for the next, Dinesh had said that continuous matches help him regaining his rhythm. The 21-year-old proved it when he won his pre-quarterfinal match against Costantin Bejenaru of Romania 19-7 on Monday, moving to within one step of assuring himself of a medal in the World Championships in Milan. This was better than his 15-7 win in the previous round.

“It makes me play well as I am always in rhythm. A full day is enough for us to rest and it makes us give our best in any tournament. The opening bout against Reznicek gave me enough confidence. We both were a bit defensive in the opening round but I like scoring in the second round, which I managed to do in this match,” said Dinesh.

The Bhiwani boxer, who was out of the game for three months due to a hand-injury, raced to a 11-4 lead in the second round before punching his way to eight more points in the last round. He is next up against Arter Beterbiev of Russia in the quarter-final, who recorded a 11-1 win over Kamara Babacar of Sweden in a one-sided match. However, with a rest day in between, one hopes he manages to retain his rhythm for the crucial match. “I am only one step away from the medal round, but I’m not thinking much about it. I have a rest day on Wednesday but we will all be coming to see Vijender fight,” said Dinesh.

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