Top Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy moved into the quarter finals of the Australia Open badminton BWF Super 500 tournament with contrasting victories, here on Thursday.
The fifth-seed Sindhu, who had lost in the first round at seven different tour events this season and is playing under a new personal coach in Malaysia’s Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, easily overcame compatriot Aakarshi Kashyap 21-14, 21-10 in a second round women’s singles match.
The double Olympic medallist Sindhu will face fourth seed Beiwen Zhang of the US in the next round.
In men’s singles, Srikanth stormed past Li Yang Su of Taiwan 21-10, 21-17 while the sixth seeded Prannoy had to fight for one hour and 14 minutes to get past Taiwan’s Yu Jen Chi 21-19, 21-19, 21-13.
Rising Indian shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat also continued with his impressive run, reaching the quarters by defeating Taiwan’s Tzu Wei Wang 21-8, 13-21, 21-19 in a tough contest that lasted for 59 minutes.
However, it was curtains for Mithun Manjunath and Kiran George.
Manjunath, who had stunned fourth seed and world No 7 Kean Yew Loh of Singapore in the opening round, lost 13-21, 21-12, 19-21 against Malaysia’s Zii Jia Lee.
