Indian shuttlers HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth and Priyanshu Rajawat continued their fine run in the ongoing Australian Open, reaching the quarterfinals of the men's singles competition after winning their pre-quarters matches on Thursday.
Prannoy survived a big scare against Chinese Taipei's world number 42 player Chi Yu Jen, clinching a 19-21, 21-19, 21-13 win after being one set down, as per Olympics.com. Prannoy, the sixth seed, lost a closely fought opening game to Chi Yu. But he kept his nerves and registered a victory in the second game which was as closely fought as the first. In the third game, the Indian shuttler dominated his opponent to win the match in 74 minutes.
HS Pranoy will now face world number two and top seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, who knocked out India's Kiran George 21-15, 21-18. Kidambi beat Chinese Taipei's Su Li Yang 21-10, 21-17 in just 39 minutes to secure a spot in the quarterfinals. The former world number one Srikanth will be competing in QFs against compatriot and Orleans Masters champion Priyanshu Rajawat, who beat world number 28 Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei 21-8, 13-21, 21-19 in his pre-quarters match.
PV Sindhu also stormed into the quarterfinals. The two-time Olympics medallist got better off her compatriot Aakarshi Kashyap to prevail in the Round of 16 by winning two straight sets. She won 21-14, 21-10.
She will go up against the American shuttler Beiwen Zhang in the quarterfinals.
Mithun Manjunath, who had caused an upset by beating world number seven and former world champion Loh Kean Yew on Saturday made an exit from the competition after 21-13, 12-21, 21-19 loss to Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia in pre-quarters match, which lasted over one hour.
In the women's doubles, the Indian pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly faced an exit after a two-game loss to the Japanese pair of Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara by 21-10, 22-20.
India's mixed doubles campaign ended on Wednesday after B Sumeeth Reddy-Ashwini Ponnappa and Rohan Kapoor-N Sikki Reddy were defeated in their opening round matches.
The Australian Open results will count towards players' qualifying rankings for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the qualifying window for which started on May 1. The tournament started on August 1 and will end on August 6.
