Saina Nehwal scored a thumping victory over Sachiyo Imai of Japan to storm into the quarter-finals of the Philippines Open badminton championships at Pasig City.
The 16-year-old promising starlet, who came up with a giant-killing performance in the first round, beating world No. 31 S. Mudukasan of Malaysia, took just 29 minutes to overcome Sachiyo 21-15, 21-14 and clinch a berth in the last-eight round.
The 86-ranked Saina, coached by All England champion Pulella Gopichand, now faces the toughest challenge in the tournament when she takes on top seed and world No. 4 Xu Huaiwen of Germany in the quarters.
Saina is the lone Indian contender in the singles draw as the others, including Chetan Anand who lost to Roslin Hashim of Malaysia in the pre-quarterfinals, already bowed out of four-star event.
Sayali Gokhale, who sprung a surprise by scoring a major upset over world No. 29 Anna Rice of Canada in the first round, lost the plot as she went down 14-21, 13-21 to Ai Gota of Japan in 29 minutes in the next round.
India's top male shuttler, world No. 24, Chetan Anand was completely off-colour while going down to lowly-ranked Roslin 9-21, 21-18, 15-21.
Anand, seeded fifth in the tournament, had moved into the last 16 by beating Saman Ismail of Malaysia 22-24, 21-7, 21-12.
Arvind Bhat lost 21-13, 21-11 to world No. 13 Wei Ng to make a quiet exit in the pre-quarters.
Bhat had taken 15 minutes to post a 21-3, 21-4 win over Jamie Junio of Tthe Philippines in the previous round.
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