Indian badminton player PV Sindhu lost to the USA’s Beiwen Zhang in the women’s singles quarter-finals campaign at the Australian Open 2023 in Sydney on Friday.
In the men’s singles, HS Prannoy beat Indonesian world No. 2 and top seed, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, to set up an all-Indian semi-final clash against Priyanshu Rajawat, who progressed at the expense of senior compatriot Kidambi Srikanth.
PV Sindhu, 17th in the badminton rankings and fifth seed in the tournament lost to world No. 12 and fourth seed Beiwen Zhang 21-12, 21-17.
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, who has been struggling for form this year, was always playing catch up to the US shuttler and succumbed in 39 minutes. It was the Indian’s fifth loss to Zhang in 11 meetings.
Meanwhile, HS Prannoy came from behind to upset top seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting 16-21, 21-17, 21-14 in a marathon affair, which lasted over an hour.
World No. 9 HS Prannoy lost the first game handily and was trailing the Indonesian 8-7 in the second game before he turned the tables to pocket the match.
In the semi-finals, HS Prannoy will be up against Priyanshu Rajawat, who made his maiden BWF Super 500 semi-finals after beating former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth 21-13, 21-8 in a contest which lasted 30 minutes.
The 21-year-old Priyanshu Rajawat has already won the Orleans Masters BWF Super 300 title earlier this year.
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.
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