Top seed Kidambi Srikanth entered the quarter-finals but a heartbreak was in store for P V Sindhu, who suffered a shock defeat to Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand in the second round of the $120,000 Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament, in Lucknow, on Thursday.
Srikanth extracted sweet revenge, thrashing Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin 21-9, 21-12 in 32 minutes, just five days after going down to the Malaysian in the semi-finals of the Malaysia Masters in Penang.
The world No 9 Indian will face another Malaysian, Goh Soon Huat, on Friday.
Last Sunday, Sindhu was on the victory podium with her Malaysia Masters gold medal, but on Thurday the third seeded Indian was beaten 21-18, 24-26, 17-21 by the world No 27-ranked Jindapol in an edge-of-the-seat thriller that lasted an hour and 28 minutes, at the BBD, UP Badminton Academy.
Defending champion Parupalli Kashyap also reached the quarter-finals after a 21-19, 21-10 win over China's Zhu Siyuan.
The Commonwealth Games champion will next take on China's Huang Yuxiang.
2011 World Championships bronze medallists Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa brushed aside compatriots Ningshi Block Hazarika and Harika Veludurthi 21-9, 21-10.
The sixth seeds will next take on the Thai pair of Puttita Supajirakul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai.
Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar also had a good day in office, marching past the fifth-seeded Indonesian combo of Angga Pratama and Ricky Karanda Suwardi 21-13, 21-14 in a men's doubles match.
The Indian duo will meet third seeds Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding of Denmark, who dispatched the Indian combo of K Nandagopal and Shlok Ramchandran 21-19, 21-6 in another match.
Fifth seeds Shizuka Matsuo and Mami Naito of Japan ended the run of India's S Poorvisha Ram and Arathi Sara Sunil 21-9, 21-11 in a women's doubles match, while K Maneesha and N Sikki Reddy went down 11-21, 17-21 to Puttita Supajirakul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand.
In the men's doubles, top seed Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark, silver medallists at the London Olympics, defeated the Indian pair of Vineeth Manuel and S Sanjeeth 21-7, 21-12 in 19 minutes.
Aparna Balan and Prajakta Sawant too bit the dust, going down 17-21, 17-21 to third seeds Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek of Netherlands in 39 minutes.
