India’s two-time Olympic medallist P.V. Sindhu and former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth advanced into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open badminton championship, winning their respective second-round matches in straight games.
Sindhu, who won a silver medal in the Rio Olympic Games in 2016 and a bronze in Tokyo 2020, defeated compatriot Aakarshi Kashyap 21-14, 21-10 in a 29-minute encounter.
Srikanth registered an equally comprehensive victory, beating Su Li Yang of Chinese Taipei 21-10, 21-17 in a second-round match in Court 3 at the Quaycentre in the BWF World Tour Super 500 event.
This was Sindhu’s first clash with Aakarshi and the more experienced player held the upper hand throughout the match, pressing home her advantage for a comfortable win. Sindhu, seeded fifth in the event, will next face fourth seed Beiwen Zhang of Malaysia, who reached the last-eight stage with a hard-fought 19-21, 21-10, 21-12 win against Huang Yu-Hsun in a second-round clash.
Srikanth, who defeated Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto 21-18, 21-7 in the first round, will meet the winner of the match between India’s Priyanshu Rajawat and Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei.
Sixth seed HS Prannoy had to fight for one hour and 14 minutes to get past Chinese Taipei shuttler Yu Jen Chi in a slog fest that concluded 21-19, 21-19, 21-13 in favour of the Indian.
The 31-year-old Prannoy has a tough obstacle to overcome in Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the quarterfinals.
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