World No. 44 Ayush Shetty advanced to the Round of 16 of the Taipei Open, a BWF Super 300 badminton competition, here on Tuesday after shockingly defeating World No. 13 Lee Chia-hao of Chinese Taipei, a recent runner-up at the All-England Championships. In a match contested on Court 1 at Taipei Arena, the 20-year-old Shetty defeated third seed Lee 21-17, 21-18 in 50 minutes to win the tournament in straight games.

As India’s performances remained inconsistent, former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the pre-quarterfinals on Tuesday by defeating fellow countryman Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian in straight games.

In the second round of the BWF World Tour Super 300 tournament, which took place at the Taipei Arena and offered USD 240,000 in prize money, Srikanth beat Subramanian 21-16, 21-15 in 35 minutes. In the women’s singles second round, Unnati Hooda defeated fellow Indian Anupama Upadhyaya 21-13, 21-17; in a 70-minute match, Tharun Mannepalli defeated Japanese player Shogo Ogawa 21-17, 19-21, 21-12; and in the women’s doubles, Rashmi Ganesh and Sania Sikkandar lost to the Japanese pair of Rui Hirokami/Sayaka Hobara 8-21, 10-21. Maisnam Meiraba fell to seventh-seeded Brian Yang of Canada 23-21, 21-12 in the men’s singles division, while local sensation Hung Yi-Ting defeated Akarshi Kashyap 9-21, 12-21 in the women’s singles Round of 32.

Lee started with a 6-3 lead and increased it to 9-5 in a competitive opening game where the lead switched hands a few times. Before the Indian scored five straight points and won 21-17, the two shuttlers fought hard till 16-16. Lee took an early 4-0 lead in the second game and extended it to 9-6. The Indian shuttler rallied and took a 14–12 lead, but Lee jumped ahead 16–14 once again. However, Shetty seized charge from 16–17, winning five points to put the team up 20–16, and then winning 21–18 to complete a thrilling triumph.