Australian Open 2023 Badminton: PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth enter quarter-finals

India's two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open 2023 Badminton BWF World Tour Super 500 event after winning their second-round matches in straight games on Thursday.

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Sindhu defeated compatriot Aakarshi Kashyap 21-14, 21-10 in a match that lasted 29 minutes. This was Sindhu's first encounter with Aakarshi, a more experienced player. Sindhu held the lead throughout the match and registered a comfortable win. Fifth seed Sindhu will next face fourth seed Beiwen Zhang of Malaysia. Zhang entered the last-eight stage with a 19-21, 21-10, 21-12 win over Huang Yu-Hsun. In the previous 10 meetings, Sindhu has beaten Zhang six times.

At the same time, Srikanth defeated Su Li Yang of Chinese Taipei 21-10, 21-17 in the second-round match. Srikanth, who defeated Japan's Kenta Nishimoto 21-18, 21-7 in the first round, will take on India's Priyanshu Rajawat in the quarterfinals on Friday. Rajawat, on the other hand, defeated Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu Wei by a scoreline of 21-8, 13-21, 21-19 in the second-round clash of the Australian Open 2023 badminton championships.

Meanwhile, HS Prannoy, India's highest-ranked singles shuttler at world No. 9, fended off a challenge from world No. 15 Lee Cheuk Yiu from Hong Kong to win 21-18, 16-21, 21-15. The Indian badminton player will take on world No. 42 Chi Yu Jen of Chinese Taipei next.

While a trio of Indian shuttlers progressed to the last 8, it was the end of the road for Mithun Manjunath. Manjunath had stunned former World Champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the opening round. But he went down fighting 13-21, 21-12, 19-21 to Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia in 61 minutes on court 2.

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Top doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will be in women's doubles second-round action. Meanwhile, singles shuttlers Malvika Bansod, Ashmita Chaliha, and Tasnim Mir suffered opening-round defeats. While Lakshya Sen was forced to retire from his men's singles opener due to illness.