Australian Open badminton: Ayush beats Kodai; to face Lakshya in quarter-final

SYDNEY: Young shuttler Ayush Shetty and former world championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen advanced in the Australian Open in contrasting fashion to set up an all-Indian quarter-final clash, while senior pros HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth made early exits here on Thursday.

The top-seeded Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty too made it to the last-eight with an easy 21-18, 21-11 victory against Chinese-Taipei's Su Ching Heng and Wu Guan Xun in 37 minutes.

The Satwik-Chirag pair will take on the fifth-seeded Indonesian pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri in the quarter-final.

Shetty, winner of the Yonex US Open Super 300 tournament earlier this year, defeated fourth-seeded Kodai Naraoka 21-17, 21-16 in a contest lasting 68 minutes.

This was the 20-year-old's second win over the world No 9 Japanese this year as he set up a showdown with the seventh-seeded Sen, who overcame Chinese-Taipei's Chi Yu Jen 21-17, 13-21, 21-13 in a contest that lasted 63 minutes.

However, Prannoy, who has not advanced beyond the pre-quarterfinals this year, could not keep up with eighth seed and former junior world champion Indonesian Farhan Alwi, losing 19-21, 10-21 in 42 minutes in the Super 500 event.

Veteran Srikanth, whose best this year has been a second-place finish at the Malaysia Masters, lost to Shogo Ogawa of Japan 20-22, 16-21 in 43 minutes.

Shetty, who had beaten Naraoka in the Hong Kong Open this year, was given a tough fight by the higher-ranked Japanese as the lead kept changing hands before the Indian, who was leading 18-17, took the last three points to win the opening game.

The second game was clearly one-sided despite the Japanese keeping pace with Shetty till 14-all before the Indian raised his game a few notches to win five straight points to lead 19-14 and finally close out the match.