Sindhu, Prannoy, Srikanth land in Quarter

Fifth seed PV Sindhu chalked out an easy straight game win over compatriot Aakarshi Kashyap while HS Prannoy, pulled off a come from behind victory over 42 Chi Yu Jen of Chinese Taipei to move into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open Badminton in Sydney on Thursday.

Playing on the badminton courts of the State Sports Centre, World no 17 Sindhu, faced a brief resistance from World no 40 Aakarshi Kashyap but the two-time Olympic medalist overcame the challenge with ease to pocket the match 21-14,21-10 in 39 minutes.

Former world champion will take on the fourth seedUSA’s Beiwen Zhang, , on Friday for a place in the semi-finals.

In the men’s singles sixth seed Prannoy, survived a scare before emerging 19-21, 21-19, 21-13 winner against Chi Yu Jen in the round of 16. Prannoy lost the closely-fought opening game to Chi Yu Jen of the Chinese Taipei. However, he made a furious comeback after trailing the second game 0-6 to force a decider. In the third game, the Indian dominated his rival to clinch the match in 74 minutes.

In the quarters, the 31-year-old Indian will face Indonesia’s world No. 2 and top seed, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, who defeated Kiran George (India) 21-15, 21-18.

Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth and Priyanshu Rajawat also advanced to the quarter-finals of the BWF Super 500 event. Srikanth, defeated Chinese Taipei’s Su Li Yang 21-10, 21-17 in 39 minutes to seal a berth in the final eight. He will square off against fellow Indian and Orleans Masters champion Priyanshu Rajawat, who beat world No. 28 Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei 21-8, 13-21, 21-19.

Mithun Manjunath’s luck ran out as he went down 21-13, 12-21, 21-19 to world No. 17 Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in the round of 16 encounter which lasted for over an hour. The Indian had registered an upset win over world No. 7 and former world champion Loh Kean Yew on Wednesday.

In the women’s doubles, two-time world champion Japanese pair of Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara knocked out Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly 21-10, 22-20 in the round of 16 clash.

India’s challenge in the mixed doubles had ended after B Sumeeth Reddy-Ashwini Ponnappa and Rohan Kapoor-N Sikki Reddy were knocked out in their opening round matches on Wednesday.

The Australian Open results will count towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth and Mithun Manjunath beat top-20 opponents for a place in the next round of the BWF Super 500 event.

Lakshya ,who won the Canada Open Super 500 earlier this month, jumped out to a 5-3 lead early on before closing to 11-7 at the break.

Sindhu, who has endured a poor season so far, failed to cross the first-round hurdle going down to Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po 18-21, 21-10, 13-21