Indian shuttlers B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma lived up to their seedings at the Australian Open Super 300 tournament with convincing straight-game wins in their respective second-round matches in Sydney on Thursday.
Second seed Sai Praneeth took just 32 minutes to defeat Indonesia’s Panji Ahmad Maulana 21-12, 21-14. Fourth seed Sameer Verma, playing against the shuttler who defeated his brother Sourabh in the first round, defeated Japan’s Takuma Ueda in the second round 21-16, 21-12 in a match that lasted 37 minutes.
Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka, the only Indian women’s singles player who had reached the second round, was ousted by China’s Han Yue 21-5, 21-5 in just 21 minutes.
There will be an all-Indian men’s doubles quarter-final on Friday with MR Arjun and Shlok Ramchandran setting up a clash with their seniors Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy.
Seventh seeds Arjun and Shlok beat Japan’s Hiroki Okamura and Masayuki Onodera 21-15, 25-23, while third seeds Attri and Reddy defeated Hyuk Gyun Choi and Park Kyung Hoon 21-17, 21-17.
Shivam Sharma and Poorvisha S Ram lost their mixed doubles match against the fifth seeds from Korea 21-6, 21-13. J Meghana and Poorvisha were also knocked out in the women’s doubles second round by Japan’s Miki Kashihara and Miyuki Kato 21-11, 21-13.