Australian Open: Sameer Verma upsets Loh Kean Yew, Aakarshi advances to quarters

It was a mixed day for Indian shuttlers at the Australian Open Super 500 in Sydney on Thursday.

Sameer Verma, HS Prannoy, Aakarshi Kashyap, and the mixed doubles pair B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy advanced to the quarterfinals with emphatic victories. But it was the curtains for youngster Anupama Upadhyay and the Panda sisters - Rutaparna and Swetaparna.

Sameer caused a major upset by defeating former world champion Loh Kean Yew.

Sameer was sublime in the first game, winning 21-14 comfortably.

Loh made a strong comeback in the second game and forced the decider by winning the second game with an identical margin.

In the deciding third game, Loh Kean Yew started off strongly but eventually looked out of steam as Sameer sealed the game 21-19 to set up a quarterfinal clash against Lin Chun-yi of Taiwan.

Prannoy, on the other hand, breezed past Misha Zilberman of Israel with a straight game (21-17, 21-15) in his pre-quarterfinal match.

There wasn’t much of a threat from Zilberman, as the Indian shuttler dominated the game across the court with delicate drop shots and powerful overhead smashes. Prannoy will face Kodai Naraoka of Japan in the next round.

However, Kiran George lost to Kenta Nishimoto after an intense fight in the opening game. Kiran conceded the first game 20-22 before losing steam in the second, which he lost 6-21. 

Aakarshi dazzles 

In the women’s singles, Aakarshi Kashyap began her match by claiming the first game 21-16 against Kai Qi of Australia. She followed it up with another dominating display, eventually sealing the game by winning the second game 21-13. She will now face Pai Yu-po of Taiwan.

Anupama, however, bowed out after losing to Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia by 11-21, 18-21, thus ending her Australian Open campaign.

In the mixed doubles, Sikki Reddy and Sumeeth Reddy advanced to the quarterfinals with an impressive win over the Australian pair of K.C. Teoh and Kai Qi Teoh. The Australian duo was outmatched by the Indian pair, who won the contest 21-11, 21-11. Sumeeth and Sikki will face the Chinese pair of Wei and Jiang in tomorrow's quarterfinals.

In the women’s doubles section, the Panda sisters concluded their Australian campaign with single-digit game defeats to the Malaysian pair of C.S. Lim and P.J. Lai. The Malaysians were dominant right from the start, leaving no room for the Indians to recover, achieving stunning straight-set victories with scores of 21-5 and 21-9.