Badminton
Australian Open: Prannoy, Sameer, Aakarshi lose in quarters, Indian campaign ends
All Indian players in the fray in the quarterfinals lost their matches in straight games at the Australian Open in Sydney on Friday.
HS Prannoy, ranked tenth, is India's top-ranked men's singles player. (Photo credit: Badminton Photo/BAI)
It is the end of the road for Indian shuttlers at the Australian Open Super 500 in Sydney as all five players lost in straight games in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Sameer Verma's remarkable run came to an abrupt end as he lost to Lin Chun-Yi 12-21, 13-21.
Sameer ousted former world champions Loh Kean Yew in the second round on Thursday, but he could not go past the Chinese Taipei shuttler who got the better of the Indian with smashes and precise placements.
Prannoy, on the other hand, got off to a slow start, trailing 3-5 with Kodai Naraoka outsmarting the World No. 10 with his tricky net shots.
Prannoy, however, stayed in the fight until the mid-game break when Naroaka claimed a slender 11-10 lead.
After the break, as Prannoy's errors piled on, Naraoka extended his lead to 15-10. But Prannoy still managed to stage a fightback, reducing Naraoak's lead to 19-20.
The Japanese youngster would eventually claim the next two straight points to win the game 21-19.
In the second game, Prannoy and Naraoka were at the same level till 4-4 before the Japanese shuttler broke into a 15-10 and then 17-13 lead.
From there onwards, Naraoka did not concede a single point as he showed the door to Prannoy winning the game 21-13.
Prannoy last played in the semifinal on the BWF World Tour at the India Open Super 750 in January.
In women's singles, Aakarshi Kashyap's campaign ended in the quarterfinal as she lost to Pai Yu Po 17-21, 12-21.
In mixed doubles, B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy were no match for World No. 6 Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin of China as the Indian pairing lost 12-21, 14-21.
Indian shuttlers remained titleless in the ongoing season of the BWF World Tour.
