V Diju and Jaseel Ismail upset second seeds Kovit Phisetsarasai and Nitipong Saengsila of Thailand to enter the men's doubles semi-finals in the Asian Satellite badminton championships in Singapore on a day when the challenge of all other Indian shuttlers came to an end.
Diju and Ismail played with confidence to tame their fancied opponents 15-7, 15-8 in 40 minutes and set up a semi-final clash with third seeds Woon Fui Lin/Mohd Fairuzizua Mohd Tazari of Malaysia.
Meanwhile, the Indian challenge in the women's singles came to an end with Saina Nehwal and Trupti Murgunde going down to higher-rated opponents in the quarter-finals.
The 15-year-old Nehwal was given a lesson or two in badminton by top seed Li Li of Singapore, who needed just 18 minutes to pack off the Indian, winning 11-3, 11-2.
Murgunde went down to second seed Salakjit Polsana of Thailand 5-11, 10-13.
In the mixed doubles, the pair of JBS Vidyadhar and Nehwal, who upset third seeds Nitipong Saengsila and Duanganong Aroonkesorn of Thailand in the second round, went down fighting to Restu Prasetyo and Mundiasti Rani of Indonesia 15-13, 6-15, 9-15 while Sanave Thomas and Shruti Kurian lost to another Indonesian pair, Pribadi and Nur Endang 3-15, 9-15.
The second Indian doubles pair of Thomas and Rupesh Kumar failed to go beyond the quarter-finals as they went down to Thien Hoon and Boon Tan of Malaysia 10-15, 13-15.
The Indian challenge in the men's singles had come to an end in the morning session itself when Anup Sridhar went down fighting to fifth seeds Yogendran Krishnan of Malaysia 14-17, 6-15 in the third round.
The other two Indians in the fray, Arvind Bhat and JBS Vidyadhar, were eliminated from the tournament in the second round late last night.
Vidyadhar was made to bite the dust by Mohammed Nazree Latifi of Malaysia, losing 5-15, 9-15 while Bhat bowed out after losing to Saman Ismail of the same country 3-15, 14-17.
