Rio Olympics Silver medallist PV Sindhu rang in her 23rd birthday with a straight-game win over Japan's Aya Ohori, while HS Prannoy notched up a brilliant come-from-behind win over Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei to enter the quarter-finals of the $1,250,000 Indonesia Open here on Thursday.
But it was curtains for london Bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, who lost in straight games to China's Chen Yufei 18-21, 15-21 here.
World No 3 Sindhu, who had reached the semi-finals at Malaysia Open last week, completed an easy rout of No 17 Ohori with a 21-17, 21-14 win in a 36-minute women's singles match. This is Sindhu's fifth win over the Japanese in as many meetings.
In the quarters, Sindhu will be up against China's He Bingjiao, who beat Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-15, 21-12 in a 32-minute battle.
In another women's singles tie, Saina, who crashed out of the second round of Malaysia Open last week, failed to find the momentum going against the Chinese Chen Yufei, losing in straight games.
In men's singles, World No 14 Prannoy then recovered from an opening game loss to outwit No 17 Wang 21-23, 21-15, 21-13 in an entertaining men's singles contest that lasted an hour.
He will meet third seed and All England champion Shi Yuqi of China in the quarters.
However, the other Indian in men's singles action — Sameer Verma proved a no-match for World No 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, who dominated the 39-minute match 21-15, 21-14 to advance to the quarters.
Sindhu retains top spot
Rio Olympics Silver medallist PV Sindhu continued to be the top-ranked Indian shuttler, after retaining the No 3 spot even as her compatriots Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth rose a few notches in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings released here on Thursday.
Saina climbed one spot to No 9 despite crashing out with a straight games defeat to Japanese Akane Yamaguchi in the second round of the Malaysia Open last week.
Rising star Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka rose a couple of places to 53rd while Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli slid six rungs to 78th. South Asian Games gold medallist Ruthvika Shivani Gadde jumped three spots to 90th.
In men's singles, Srikanth's semi-final finish at the Malaysia Open hauled him up a couple of spots to fifth. Srikanth lost his last-four match to the reigning Asian champion Kento Momota, the same player who edged him in the first round of the ongoing Indonesia Open this week as well.
HS Prannoy, on the other hand, dropped one spot to 14th while Sameer Verma and B Sai Praneeth have been placed one after the other at 20th and 21st respectively. Beyond the top 50, Parupalli Kashyap stayed put at 55th and lakshya Sen too maintained his 70th position, while Subhankar Dey dropped to 64th.