On Thursday, India’s ace shuttlers PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy advanced to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open 2023 in Sydney.
In the women’s singles event, PV Sindhu, 17th in the badminton rankings, beat compatriot Aakarshi Kashyap, the world No. 40, 21-14, 21-10 to enter the last eight. PV Sindhu will take on the USA’s Beiwen Zhang, seeded fourth, on Friday for a place in the semi-finals.
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. In the quarters, the 31-year-old HS Prannoy will face Indonesia’s world No. 2 and top seed, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
Kidambi Srikanth and Priyanshu Rajawat also advanced to the men’s singles quarter-finals of the BWF Super 500 event.
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.
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.
