Australian Open 2024 badminton: HS Prannoy advances; Sameer Verma stuns former world champion

Indian shuttler HS Prannoy has advanced to the quarter-finals of the men’s singles event at the Australian Open 2024 badminton tournament in Sydney, Australia on Thursday.

Prannoy, 10th in the world badminton rankings, beat world No. 53 Misha Zilberman of Israel 21-17, 21-15 in 46 minutes in his round of 16 match at the BWF Super 500 competition.

Following the victory, India’s top-ranked men’s singles player Prannoy has set up a quarter-final clash with world No. 6 Kodai Naraoka of Japan. This is the first time that Prannoy has progressed beyond the second round since making the semi-finals at the India Open in January.

Sameer Verma, ranked 114th, stunned world No. 12 Loh Kean Yew of Singapore to enter the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.

Sameer emerged winner against the former world champion in a three-game thriller and won 21-14, 14-21, 21-19 in 62 minutes. He will take on world No. 17 Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei in the next round.

Kiran George, ranked 35th, lost to world No. 11 Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the second round. Despite putting on a strong fight in the first game, George lost 22-20, 21-6 in 49 minutes.

In the women’s singles, eighth-seeded Aakarshi Kashyap beat Kai Qi Teoh of Australia 21-16, 21-13 to reach the quarter-finals. Aakarshi will face third-seeded Pai Yu-Po of Chinese Taipei in the last eight.

However, Aakarshi’s compatriots Malvika Bansod and Anupama Upadhyaya were knocked out in the second round. Malvika suffered a 21-17, 23-21 loss to seventh seed Ester Nurumi Tri Wardoyo of Indonesia while Anupama went down to sixth-seeded Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia 21-11, 21-18.

In the mixed doubles category, B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy managed to advance to the quarter-finals after beating the Australian pair of Kai Chen Teoh and Kai Qi Teoh.

Ranked 215th, Sumeet Reddy-Sikki Reddy will be up against world No. 5 Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin of the People’s Republic of China in the last eight.

Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda were also ousted in the second round of the women’s doubles. They lost to Lai Pei Jing and Lim Chiew Sien of Malaysia 21-5, 21-9 in 27 minutes.