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New Delhi: Indian badminton sensation Ayush Shetty and former world championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen advanced in the Australia Open in different fashion to set up an all-Indian quarterfinal clash, while senior players HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth made disappointing early exits.
The top seeded Indian men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were instrumental in their performance making it to the last-eight with an easy 21-18, 21-11 win against Chinese Taipei's Su Ching Heng and Wu Guan Xun in 37 minutes. The Satwik-Chirag pair will take in fifth-seeded Indonesian pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Shetty, the winner of the Yonex US Super 300 tournament earlier in the year, beat fourth-seeded Kodai Naraoka 21-17, 21-16 in a match lasting for 68 minutes. Shetty, who had beaten Naraoka in the Hong Kong Open this year, was given a tough fight by the higher-ranked Japanese as the lead kept changing hands before the Indian, who was leading 18-17, took the last three points to win the opening game.
This was the 20-year-old player's second victory over the world number 9 Japanese in this year as he set up a showdown with the seventh-seeded Sen, who beat Chinese-Taipei's Chi Yu Jen 21-17, 13-21, 21-13 in a contest which lasted for 63 minutes.
Prannoy, who has not advanced beyond the pre-quarterfinals this year and is experiencing a bad run, could not keep up to the expectations of the crowd as she went down against Indonesian player Farhan Alwi, losing 19-21, 10-21 in 42 minutes in the USD 475,000 Super 500 event.
Earlier on Wednesday, the 33-year-old Prannoy, who is an Asian Games bronze-medallist and a 2023 World Championships bronze winner, had been stretched by world number 85 Yohanes Saut Marcellyno before the Indian won 6-21, 21-12, 21-17 against the lower-ranked player.
Meanwhile, veteran player Srikanth, who's best performance this year has been a second-place finish at the Malaysian Masters went down against Shogo Ogawa of Japan 20-22, 16-21 in a clash which lasted for 43 minutes.
