Sydney (Australia): India’s two-time Olympic medallist P.V. Sindhu, former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth and youngster Priyanshu Rajawat advanced into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open badminton championship while reigning National Champion Mithun Manjunath crashed out in the second round.
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 Quay Centre in the BWF World Tour Super 500 event.
Rajawat overcame Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei in three hard-fought games, quelling a second-game resurgence by his opponent to win 21-8, 13-21, 21-19 in 59 minutes.
Mithun Manjunath went down in three games to Malaysia’s experienced Lee Zii Jia in an hour, winning 21-13, 12-21, 21-19 in the second round.
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 compatriot Priyanshu Rajawat for a place in the semifinals.
Rajawat won the first game easily 21-8 by not allowing his opponent many chances. The Chinese Taipei shuttler came back strongly in the next game, winning it 21-13. He then came back strongly to wrap up the match and a place in the quarterfinals.
(IANS)
