Australian Open: HS Prannoy sails into quarter-finals; Sameer Verma stuns former world champion

Sydney [Australia], June 13 (ANI): Indian shuttler HS Prannoy progressed to the quarter-finals of the men's singles event at the Australian Open 2024 badminton tournament in Sydney, Australia on Thursday.
Prannoy defeated Misha Zilberman of Israel 21-17, 21-15, in 46 minutes in the BWF Super 500 round of 16.
Following his victory, India's top-ranked men's singles player Prannoy will face Japan's world No. 6 Kodai Naraoka in the quarterfinals. Prannoy has made it past the second round for the first time since reaching the semi-finals of the India Open in January.
Sameer Verma, ranked 114th, surprised world No. 12 Loh Kean Yew of Singapore to go to the Australian Open quarterfinals.
Sameer defeated the previous world champion in a three-game thriller, winning 21-14, 14-21, and 21-19 in 62 minutes. He will face world No. 17 Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei in the next round.
Kiran George, ranked 35th, fell in the second round to Japan's world No. 11 Kenta Nishimoto. Despite putting up a good fight in the opening game, George lost 22-20, 21-6 in 49 minutes.
In the women's singles, eighth-seeded Aakarshi Kashyap defeated Kai Qi Teoh of Australia 21-16, 21-13 to go to the quarterfinals. In the final eight, Aakarshi will face Chinese Taipei's Pai Yu-Po.
However, Aakarshi's compatriots Malvika Bansod and Anupama Upadhyaya were eliminated in the second round. Malvika lost 21-17, 23-21 to Indonesian seventh seed Ester Nurumi Tri Wardoyo, and Anupama lost 21-11, 21-18 to Indonesian sixth seed Putri Kusuma Wardani.
In the mixed doubles event, B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy advanced to the quarter-finals by defeating the Australian duo of Kai Chen Teoh and Kai Qi Teoh.
Sumeet Reddy-Sikki Reddy, ranked 215th, will face world No. 5 Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin of the People's Republic of China in the final eight. (ANI)