Saina Nehwal and Chetan Anand advanced to the quarterfinals but Arvind Bhat crashed out after a stunning third-round defeat in the Syed Modi International Grand Prix badminton tournament.
Top-seed Saina crushed Chitralekha 21-9, 21-7 to set up a clash with fifth seed Indonesian Fransiska Ratnasari, while Chetan struggled past Indonesian Adnan Fauzi 21-11, 20-22, 21-17.
The men’s top seed will take on compatriot Anup Sridhar in the quarterfinals on Friday. Sixth seeded Sridhar spanked Eshan Naqvi 21-14, 21-11 in another match.
However, the biggest upset of the day was the shocking 21-15, 19-21, 14-21 defeat of Arvind at the hands of Malaysian Kwong Beng Chan in an hour-long match.
In a match that had 111 rallies, Arvind squandered a first game lead and then found the going tough against the Malaysian, who held nerve at crucial junctures to emerge as victorious.
In the first game, the Malaysian opened up a 10-4 lead but a gutsy Arvind pocketed 14 points on the stretch to lead 18-10 before pocketing the game.
But in the second game, the Indian committed some unforced errors to allow the Malaysian to take a 10-5 lead. Arvind tried to come back and made it 19-20 before Chan wrapped it up to draw level.
In the decider, Chan again zoomed to a 10-3 lead and although Arvind tried to come back, making it 14-18, it was all over soon.
Among other Indians in fray, fourth seed P Kashyap struggled past German Dieter Domke 21-12, 19-21 21-17 and eighth seed RMV Gurusaidatt pipped Ajay Jayaram 16-21, 21-8, 21-12 in 42 minutes to reach the quarterfinals.
Sai Praneet B also made it the final eight when Nikhil Kanetkar retired midway with the former leading 6-2.
In women’s singles, Sikki Reddy beat third seed Maja Tvrdy 21-16, 21-14, qualifier PV Sindhu beat compatriot Mohita Sahdev 21-12, 21-14. Seventh seed Trupti Murgunde rallied to pip Japanese Hirayama Yu 17-21, 21-18, 23-21, while Aditi Mutatkar prevailed over fourth seed Neha Pandit 21-16, 21-18.
However, it was all over for Dhanya Nair, who went down to second seed Indonesian Maria Febe Kusumastuti 21-12, 21-6.
In the men’s doubles, top-seed Akdhay Dewalkar and Jishnu Sanyal beat compatriots Davinder Dhillon and Hemant Duggal 21-4, 21-18 and Sanave Thomas and V Diju defeated Venkat Gaurav and Manish Gupta 21-13, 21-14 Second seed Tarun Kona and Arun Vishnu got the better of Sai Praneet B and Pranav Chopra 18-21, 21-11, 21-18 to reach the quarterfinals.
Among the women, top seeds Aparna Balan and Shruti Kurian also reached the quarters after beating Chitralekha and Parssa Naqvi 21-12, 21-19 in the women’s doubles category.
