Saina delivered on her pre-Olympic promise to scalp a few higher ranked players and came up with a sublime performance to beat the Hong Kong player 21-19, 11-21, 21-11 in 52 minutes to reach the last-eight stage.

In the quarter-finals, Saina will meet Maria Kristin Yulianti, who is the world number 16 and was part of Indonesia’s Uber Cup runners-up team.

Saina’s quarter-final encounter is expected to be a mouth-watering contest as Yulianti too looked in good form after edging out sixth seed Tine Rasmussen 18-21, 21-19, 21-14 in an hour-long gruelling battle.

Saina seized early initiative and withstood a setback before delivering the knockout punch to upstage the fourth seed Wang.

With two quality shuttlers engaged in a no-holds-barred battle, the lead kept switching in the first game and Saina, trailing 16-19, looked in trouble before she reeled off five points on the trot to leave Wang stranded.

In the second game, the scores were level at 7-7 when Wang broke loose and won 10 of the next 12 points to stretch her lead to the point of being virtually unassailable.

In the decider, Saina broke loose and won the first six points before Wang made a comeback of sorts, though still trailing 4-7. Saina responded by winning the next five points in a row to widen the gap, and kept the lead to walk away with a win.

After the victory, a jubilant Saina said she did not think much about her higher-ranked opponent and played her natural game.

“I had no expectations because it was my first Olympics. I just wanted to give it my best. I never thought I have to win and wanted to give my 100 per cent,” Saina said.

On her quarter-final match against Yulianti, Saina said: “Getting into the quarter-finals is something I never thought of.”

Sridhar out

Anup Sridhar’s campaign did not proceed beyond the second round as Shoji Sato of Japan sent the Indian packing in straight sets. Sato took just 37 minutes to tame Sridhar 21-13, 21-17 in a lopsided match where Sridhar looked out of sorts for major part of it.

Sato got off to a good start, racing to 6-0 and he wrapped up the game, winning five points on the trot. Sridhar put up a slightly better show in the second game. Sato, however, was quick to assert himself.