The 23-year-old, seeded 13th, was a point away from dropping the opening game before he recovered to clinch it 21-19 to edge into a surprise lead.

Son responded by moving into an 11-7 advantage in the second game but Huang showed his resilience and fought back, sealing victory with another 21-19 success.

The Chinese player will go on to face Malaysia’s Teck Zhi Soo in the next round of the tournament which is part of the part of the BWF Grand Prix Gold. 

“Son Wan-Ho is more experienced and maybe his technique is better in some ways but I played this match with bravery and speed,” Huang said.

“It was important that I took the initiative in this match because he is a good opponent.

“I didn’t think about winning or losing key points in the second game, I was focused only on putting pressure back on my opponent.”

Elsewhere in the men’s draw, the top players continued to struggle as third seed Lee Dong-keun of South Korea was also dumped out of the competition at the last eight stage as he lost 21-16, 17-21, 21-8 to Japan’s unseeded Riichi Takeshita.

South Korea’s Sung Ji-hyun, number one seed in the women’s draw, managed to succeed where many of her top-ranked counterparts had failed as she reached the semi-finals though she had to come back from a game down to beat China’s Chen Yufei 21-23, 21-14, 21-14.

Sung will go up against Chiang Mei Hui of Chinese Taipei after she overcame eighth seed Kaori Impabeppu 21-17, 21-16.

Defending men’s doubles champions Huang Kaixiang and Zheng Siwei of China continued their pursuit of a second successive New Zealand Open crown by booking their place in the semi-finals by defeating South Korean duo Kim Gi Jung and Kim San Rang.

The top seeds took the opener before the Chinese pair hit back to secure a 17-21, 21-19, 21-16 win.

Huang and Zheng are due to entertain Indonesia’s Indonesia’s Angga Pratama and Ricky Karanda Suwardi in the last four after they beat Chinese Taipei’s Chen Hung Ling and Chi-Lin Wang 23-21, 21-17.

The series of shock results was maintained in the women’s doubles as South Korean top seeds Jung Kyung-eun and Shin Seung-chan suffered a 21-15, 12-21, 21-19 defeat at the hands of unseeded duo Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota of Japan.

They will meet Setyana Mapasa and Gronya Sommervile in the last four as the Australians claimed a 24-22 21-8 triumph against fourth seeds Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa of India.

Action in Auckland is due to continue tomorrow.