Top Indian shuttlers HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth, and PV Sindhu eased into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open Badminton 2023 in Sydney.
In Men’s singles, the Malaysia Masters 2023 champion Prannoy defeated Chi Yu Jen of Chinese Taipei 19-21, 21-19, 21-13.
World number 19 Srikanth defeated Chinese Taipei's Su Li Yang 21-10, 21-17. He will next face compatriot Priyanshu Rajawat, who defeated Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu Wei 21-8, 13-21, 21-19.
In Women’s singles, two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu breezed past compatriot Akarshi Kashyap 21-14, 21-10. Sindhu will meet USA's Beiwen Zhang in the quarterfinal. In the previous 10 meetings, Sindhu has beaten Zhang six times.
However, it was the end of the road for Mithun Manjunath, who had stunned former World Champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the opening round. Manjunath went down fighting 13-21, 21-12, 19-21 to Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia. K. George lost to top seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia 15-21, 18-21 in another men's singles second-round match. In Women’s doubles, the pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand were defeated by Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara of Japan 10-21, 20-22.
Earlier, mixed doubles teams of B Sumeeth Reddy-Ashwini Ponnappa and Rohan Kapoor-Sikki Reddy crashed out of the tournament following defeats in the opening round. Singles shuttlers Malvika Bansod, Ashmita Chaliha, and Tasnim Mir suffered opening-round defeats, while Lakshya Sen was forced to retire from his men's singles opener due to illness.
