Australian Open 2023 Badminton: PV Sindhu loses quarterfinal match; Priyanshu Rajawat enters semis

Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu crashed out of the Australian Open 2023 badminton women's singles quarterfinals after losing in straight games to America's Beiwen Zhang in straight games on Friday.

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

Sindhu, who had slipped to No.17 in the world rankings due to early exits in the last several tournaments, was defeated by world No. 12 Zhang 21-12, 21-17 in just 39 minutes. She has beaten Zhang six times in the last 10 meetings. But the Indian could not overcome the American player today. Sindhu had defeated compatriots Ashmita Chaliha and Aakarshi Kashyap in the first two rounds but the loss to Zhang was disappointing. Now she will play the World Championship in Copenhagen, Denmark from 21 to 27 August.

World Championship 2019 winner Sindhu has been going through a poor run of form since recovering from injury. She made early exits in seven of the 12 BWF World Tour tournaments this year. At the beginning of the year, she parted ways with Korea's Park Tae-sang. After that, she briefly worked with SAI coach Vidhi Chaudhary. She now has a new coach, Mohammad Hafeez Hashim, who was the 2003 All-England champion.

Also Read: PV Sindhu pens an emotional message post her exit from US Open

Meanwhile, in the men's singles, HS Prannoy beat Indonesian world No. 2 and top seed, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting. After that, he set up an all-Indian semi-final clash against Priyanshu Rajawat, who progressed at the expense of senior compatriot Kidambi Srikanth. The 21-year-old Priyanshu Rajawat has already won the Orleans Masters BWF Super 300 title earlier this year.

Meanwhile, two other Indian players, Mithun Manjunath, and Kiran George, however, suffered defeats in the Australian Open 2023 badminton men's singles. Manjunath, seeded fourth and world number seven after defeating Singapore's Kean Yew Loh, lost 13-21 21-12 19-21 to Malaysia's Zi Jia Lee in the first round. George could not mount any challenge against top seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia. He went down in straight games 15-21, 18-21.

The Australian Open 2023 badminton 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.