Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of the India Open after suffering a shock straight game loss even as title-contenders Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu progressed to the quarterfinals with facile wins, here on Thursday.
Playing his first tournament of the new season after recovering from an abdominal muscle strain, World No 3 Srikanth suffered a 19-21, 17-21 loss to Malaysian qualifier Iskandar Zulkarnain.
Top seed and defending champion Sindhu dumped Bulgaria's linda Zetchiri 21-10, 21-14 in the women's singles to set up a clash with eighth seeded Spaniard Beatriz Corrales, who defeated Ruthvika Shivani Gadde 21-17, 21-10.
Saina, who reached the finals at Indonesia Masters last week, mauled Denmark's line Højmark Kjaersfeldt 21-12 21-11 in another women's singles duel and will now face American fifth seed Beiwen Zhang next.
Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth defeated Hong Kong's Hu Yun 21-10 21-15 in the men's singles and will lock horns with third seeded Taiwanese Chou Tien Chen next.
Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, who has been struggling to cross the opening round ever since recovering from his series of injuries, finally reached the men's singles quarterfinals of a major event after overcoming compatriot Shreyansh Jaiswal 21-19, 19-21, 21-12.
He will face China's Qian Bin, who overcame a fighting Kartikey Gulshan Kumar 21-17, 14-21, 21-13 in another pre- quarterfinal match.
Unseeded mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also registered a stunning 21-16, 15-21, 23-21 win over third seeded Malaysian combo of Tan Kian Meng and lai Pei Jing.
Olympic champion Carolina Marin also reached the women's singles quarters after defeating China's Gao Fangjie 13-21, 21-15, 21-11.
Earlier, unheralded Mugdha Agrey's campaign in the women's singles ended with a 12-21, 16-21 loss against Zhang, while Aakarshi Kashyap lost to third seeded Thai Ratchanok Inthanon 11-21, 12-21.