Saina Nehwal breezed past Chinese Taipei's Hsu Ya Ching while Parupalli Kashyap shocked world No. 5 Son Wan-ho to make it to the quarter-finals of the Indonesia Super Series Premier badminton tournament in Jakarata on Thursday.
The Indian women's ace, who dropped to No 3 in the world rankings, thrashed Ching 21-13, 21-15 in 36 minutes to set up a women’s quarter-final clash with old foe Shixian Wang.
Kashyap, meanwhile, upstaged Wan-ho 21-11, 21-14 in just 36 minutes and will face top seed Chen Long in a men's singles quarter-final.
However, Kidambi Srikanth bowed out, losing 21-14, 20-22, 13-21 to Ginting Anthony of Indonesia in 54 minutes.
Seeded second, Saina put up a thoroughly clinical performance against her unseeded opponent, clinching the first game in 14 minutes.
Ching fought a tad harder in the second game but the Indian dominated the proceedings just enough to pocket the match.
World No. 12 Kashyap came up with a clinical display against Wan Ho, winning 42 points as compared to just 25 won by the Korean.
The opening game turned out to be a cakewalk for Kashyap. Having opened up a 4-0 lead, the shuttler from Hyderabad simply dominated the proceedings.
Kashyap continued to surge and the closest the Korean could reach was 4-7 at one stage in the first game.
In the second, Wan-ho bounced back with a 2-0 lead to begin with but Kashyap soon caught up at 3-3. The battle continued till 6-6 before the Indian reeled off six straight points to make it 12-6.
There was no looking back for Kashyap thereafter and he eventually sealed the game and match comfortably.
Kashyap will take on top seed Chen Long in the quarter-finals.
Srikanth, ranked fourth in the world, began with a bang. Living up to his reputation, he took the lead and easily wrapped up the opening game.
But Anthony quickly got his act together and the second game saw the scores run neck-and-neck till 20-20 before the unseeded Indonesian earned two crucial points to take the match to the decider.
In the third game, fourth seed Srikanth initially put up a good fight but halfway into the game lost steam and eventually lost it 13-21 and bowed out of the tournament.
Meanwhile, it was curtains for the Indians in the doubles events.
The star women's doubles combo of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost the second round match to seventh seeded local favourites Yu Yang and Zhong Qianxin 8-21, 18-21 in 29 minutes.
Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar went down to fifth seeded Chinese pair of Chai Biao and Hong Wei 13-21, 11-21 in the second round of the men's doubles.
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