Australian Open 2023 badminton: PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy make quarter-finals

Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu progressed to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open 2023 women’s singles event in Sydney, on Thursday.

PV Sindhu, 17th in the badminton rankings, beat compatriot Aakarshi Kashyap, the world No. 40, 21-14, 21-10 to enter the last eight.

HS Prannoy, meanwhile, survived a scare en route to his 19-21, 21-19, 21-13 win over world No. 42 Chi Yu Jen of Chinese Taipei in the round of 16. 

Kidambi Srikanth and Priyanshu Rajawat also advanced to the men’s singles quarter-finals of the BWF Super 500 event.

Playing on the badminton courts of the State Sports Centre, PV Sindhu, seeded fifth in the tournament, faced a brief resistance from her fellow Indian shuttler but the Olympian overcame the challenge with ease to pocket the match in 39 minutes.

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

Meanwhile, HS Prannoy, seeded sixth, lost the closely-fought opening game to Chi Yu Jen of the Chinese Taipei. However, HS Prannoy registered a stunning comeback after trailing the second game 0-6 to force a decider. In the third game, the Indian dominated the Chinese Taipei shuttler to clinch the match in 74 minutes.     

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

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

Mithun Manjunath fell 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. Mithun Manjunath had registered an upset win over world No. 7 and former world champion Loh Kean Yew on Wednesday.

In the women’s doubles, the Indian pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly were knocked out after a 21-10, 22-20 loss against the Japanese pair of Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara, two-time world championships, 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. The qualification window for badminton in the Paris Games started on May 1.