Unfancied Arvind Bhat pulled off a sensational straight-game victory over world No. 6 Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark to storm into the pre-quarter-finals of the men's singles at the Malaysian Open badminton championships.
The mechanical engineer from Bangalore showed scant respect for the reputation of his opponent, thrashing the fifth seed 21-16, 23-21 to set up a clash with Roman Spitko of Germany in the four-star event in Kuching.
India's teenage prodigy Saina Nehwal was also well on her way to a big upset against world No. 7 Jie Yao of the Netherlands, but lost the gruelling first round battle 21-9, 19-21, 11-21 and bowed out of the women's singles draw.
Other Indians in the men's singles charts -- Chetan Anand and Rohan Castelino -- made their exits after losing in straight games. However, national champion Anup Sridhar did manage to give a scare to world no 2. Lee Chong Wei before going down 21-12, 17-21 13-21.
World no. 61 Bhat, regarded as a talent to reckon with but prone to choking in crunch moments, played a fiercely attacking game and did not allow Jonassen to play his rallies in the first game.
Stung by the reverse in the first game, Jonassen, who had defeated India's Anup Sridhar in Indonesian Open last week in the quarter-finals, came back hard in the second but Bhat was determined not to let slip the opportunity from his hand.
The 25-year-old surprised Jonassen with some deceptive shots and although Jonassen stretched the game to 21, Bhat had the last laugh.
An elated Bhat told PTI from Kuching that this was the biggest victory of his career so far and he was determined to make it count.
"This is the best I have ever played. He (Jonassen) is one of the most respected players in the world. He is very consistent on tours and beating him was really good," he said.
"He loves to play rallies. So I had gone into the match with the plan of not playing too many rallies and that helped. I was also little more deceptive with my shots today. I wanted to finish as soon as possible and it really worked," he said.
Bhat had pulled off a big win in the first round also, against James Chua of Malaysia.
"That was a very important victory because he (Chua) was once among the top five of the world."
On his next match, Bhat said, "I have defeated Spitko in the Thomas Cup but I am not taking the match lightly."
As for the other Indians in singles draw, world no. 27 Chetan Anand disappointed again and lost 21-14 21-10 without putting any fight against lower ranked Andrew Smith of England.
Sridhar came up an excellent show against the formidable second seeded Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, but lost the tie 21-12, 17-21 13-21.
Castelino went down 21-15, 21-12 to Chan yan Kit of Hong Kong.
In men's doubles Rupesh Kumar and Thomas Sanave won their first round match 21-12, 21-19 against Germany's Michael Fuchus and Roman Spitko.
In women's doubles, Sayali Gokhale and Aditi Mutatkar exited after a first round loss to Sabrina Chong and Chin Sook of Malaysia 13-21, 10-21.
Ruth Misa and Saina Nehwal also lost to the local pair of Chiou Haw and Anita Raj 21-13 21-19.
