Leading Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth progressed in their respective singles categories after notching up straight games wins at the 17th Asian Games here Thursday.
However, it was the end of the road for two-time World Championship bronze medallist P.V. Sindhu, who lost her women's singles Round of 16 match 22-20, 16-21, 20-22 in an hour and two minutes to old Indonesian rival Bellaetrix Manuputty.
World No.10 Sindhu looked completely in control till the halfway mark of her pre-quarters, winning the first game and taking a comfortable 10-2 lead in the second.
However, the 19-year-old suddenly lost the plot and allowed the World No.34 Indonesian to get back into the match. Sindhu uncharacteristically made numerous unforced errors as Bellaetrix wrapped up the game 21-16.
The eighth seeded Indian failed to get her rhythm back and lost early ground in the decider. She made a mini-comeback to lead 17-16 but squandered the lead again before giving the Indonesian the first match point. Sindhu managed to save it but failed to do so on the second and crashed out of the Games.
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Sixth seed Saina hardly broke a sweat to outclass Iran's Soraya Aghaeihajiagha 21-7, 21-6 in just 25 minutes to reach the quarter-final at the Gyeyang Gymnasium.
In the first game, Saina allowed the rallies to go a little longer as she took 14 minutes to win 21-7. But the ruthless Olympic bronze medallist decimated the Iranian, finishing her off 21-16 in the second game.
Earlier in men's singles, Kashyap marched into the pre-quarters with a facile win over Afghanistan's Iqbal Ahmad Shekib. Kashyap, who received a bye in the opening round, beat the Afghani 21-6, 21-6 in just 17 minutes.
The Glasgow Commonwealth Games champion breezed through the first game, finishing off his opponent in just eight minutes. The second game was not much different with the 28-year-old Indian taking just a minute longer than the first to dispose off the Afghan.
Compatriot Srikanth had a relatively tougher outing as he struggled to win the first game 23-21 against Vietnam's Cao Cuong Pham. However, the young Indian came back strongly to clinch the second game 21-8 to proceed to the pre-quarters.
In men's doubles action, B. Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri came out on top in brilliant fashion to oust former All-England champions and sixth seeds Xiaolong Liu and Zihan Qiu to progress to the last eight.
The unseeded Indians beat the Chinese pair 21-17, 21-16 in 43 minutes to book their place in the quarters.
Attri then later joined hands with N. Sikki Reddy in mixed doubles to beat Maldivian combine Aishath Afnaan Rasheed and Nasheeu Sharafuddeen 21-8, 21-4 in only 15 minutes to go in to the Round of 16.
However, the pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Pradnya Gadre lost 20-22, 21-17, 13-21 in 42 minutes to Singaporeans Chayut Triyachart and Lei Yao in the Round of 32.
