Sindhu, Srikanth advance to quarterfinals of Australian Open

SYDNEY: Veteran Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth moved into the quarterfinals of the ongoing 2023 Australian Open Super 500 event with straight-game victories over their respective opponents on Thursday in Sydney.

While Sindhu got the better of compatriot Aakarshi Kashyap 21-14, 21-10, Srikanth defeated Chinese Taipei’s Su Li Yang 21-10, 21-17.

Fifth-seeded Sindhu did not have the best of starts in the first game with Kashyap putting up a stiff challenge at 13-13. However, the latter soon ran out of gas as the double Olympic medallist wrapped up the first game 21-14, stitching together a few consecutive points.

Sindhu carried forward this momentum in the second game as well as she completely outplayed the 21-year-old to move into the quarterfinals.

She will now face off against USA’s Zhang Beiwen on Friday. Srikanth, on the other hand, was never in any sort of trouble as he wrapped up his contest against the Chinese Taipei shuttler in just 39 minutes. Later in the day, both Priyanshu Rajawat and HS Prannoy had to battle it out in deciders to make it to the quarterfinals.

Up against Wang Tzu Wei, Rajawat dominated the opening game 21-8. The Chinese Taipei shuttler then forced a decider by winning the second game 21-13, before the Indian cut his fightback short and won the decider 21-19.

Prannoy, first, dug himself into a massive hole on court number four of the Quaycenter, before bouncing back under pressure to seal a quarterfinal berth. The Indian surrendered the first game 19-21 to Chi Yu Jen and trailed 0-6 in the second before turning it around. Prannoy, eventually prevailed 19-21, 21-19, 21-13.

Among the other Indian shuttlers in action, the women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost 10-21, 20-22 to Japan’s Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara.

Mithun Manjunath, who registered a victory over former world champion Loh Kean Yew, went down against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia 13-21, 21-12, 19-21 in a hard-fought battle. Kiran George, who entered the second round after being handed a walkover against Lakshya Sen, also went down 15-21, 18-21 against Anthony Ginting.