Saina Nehwal [ Images ] scored a thumping victory over Sachiyo Imai of Japan [ Images ] to storm into the quarter-finals of the Philippines Open badminton championships at Pasig City.

The 16-year-old promising starlet, who came up with a giant-killing performance in the first round, beating world No. 31 S. Mudukasan of Malaysia, took just 29 minutes to overcome Sachiyo 21-15, 21-14 and clinch a berth in the last-eight round.

The 86-ranked Saina, coached by All England [ Images ] champion Pulella Gopichand, now faces the toughest challenge in the tournament when she takes on top seed and world No. 4 Xu Huaiwen of Germany [ Images ] in the quarters.

Saina is the lone Indian contender in the singles draw as the others, including Chetan Anand [ Images ] who lost to Roslin Hashim of Malaysia in the pre-quarterfinals, already bowed out of four-star event.

Sayali Gokhale, who sprung a surprise by scoring a major upset over world No. 29 Anna Rice of Canada [ Images ] in the first round, lost the plot as she went down 14-21, 13-21 to Ai Gota of Japan in 29 minutes in the next round.

India's [ Images ] top male shuttler, world No. 24, Chetan Anand was completely off-colour while going down to lowly-ranked Roslin 9-21, 21-18, 15-21.

Anand, seeded fifth in the tournament, had moved into the last 16 by beating Saman Ismail of Malaysia 22-24, 21-7, 21-12.

Arvind Bhat [ Images ] lost 21-13, 21-11 to world No. 13 Wei Ng to make a quiet exit in the pre-quarters.

Bhat had taken 15 minutes to post a 21-3, 21-4 win over Jamie Junio of Tthe Philippines in the previous round.