Second seed PV Sindhu sailed into the women's singles quarter-finals with a comfortable win over Japan's Aya Ohori in the Hong Kong Open Superseries, in Hong Kong on Thursday.
Sindhu, who slipped a place to be number three in the world rankings, defeated Ohori 21-14, 21-17 in a second round match lasting 39 minutes.
The Indian faces another Japanese, fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi, in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Tenth-ranked Nehwal, however, ran out of steam to lose to China's Chen Yufei and eighth seed 21-18, 19-21, 10-21 in a second round match lasting an hour. The players met for the first time.
It was curtains for India in the men's singles after HS Prannoy went down fighting to Japan's Kazumasa Sakai 21-11, 10-21, 15-21 in a 54-minute battle.
Parupalli Kashyap and Sourabh Verma had lost in the opening round on Wednesday.
