Saina, Jayaram, Gurusaidutt in Hong Kong Open quarters

Defending champion Saina Nehwal reached the quarterfinals without breaking much sweat but it was RMV Gurusaidutt who made heads turn on Thursday as he stunned World No. 9 Pengyu Du of China in a thrilling three-game match in the Hong Kong Super Series.

A day after Ajay Jayaram sent World No. 6 Sho Sasaki of Japan packing, Gurusaidutt emulated his teammate with a stunning 15-21 21-7 21-13 victory over Pengyu in a battle which lasted 56 minutes.

The 21-year-old Andhra lad will face another formidable opponent in World No. 2 Chinese Chen Long in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Earlier, fourth seed Saina beat Jie Yao of the Netherlands 21-17 21-17 in a 37-minute match to set up a clash with two-time All England champion Tine Baun of Denmark.

The seventh seed Dane defeated Canada's Li Michelle 21-12 21-14 in another pre-quarterfinal match.

Jayaram also continued his fine run and booked a berth in the last eight after beating 2003 All-England Open Badminton Champion, Muhammad Hafiz Hashim 21-16 21-15 in a half hour battle.

However, Arvind Bhat suffered a 10-21 8-21 defeat to World No. 2 Chen Long to crash out of the tournament.

It was sad news for India in the mixed doubles as Jwala Gutta and V Diju too couldn't make it to the next round losing 18-21 16-21 to second seeds Chen Xu and Jin Ma in a match that lasted only 29 minutes.

The campaign of India's men's doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas was also cut short after they lost 11-21 14-21 to second seeds Jae Sung Jung and Yong Dae Lee of Korea.

The day belonged to Gurusaidutt as he refused to let the big difference in his and Pengyu's ranking rattle him. The World No.1 51 Indian was a set down but made a remarkable recovery to stun the Chinese.

Losing the first game after leading 8-4 at one point, Gurusaidutt made sure he didn't give his opponent an inch away in the next game as he bounced back in style.

The third game was no different as the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games gold medallist opened up a 8-3 lead and finally walked away with the game and match.