Australian Open 2023: Sindhu, Srikanth win easily; Prannoy and Priyanshu dig deep to reach quarters

PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth won their Round of 16 matches in the identical style as they secured quarterfinal spots in straight games at the Australian Open Super 500 in Sydney on Thursday.

However, HS Prannoy and Priyanshu Rajawat had to dig deep to secure their wins.

Prannoy, the world no. 9, defeated Chinese Taipei's unseeded Chi Yu Jen 19-21, 21-19, 21-13 in one hour and 14 minutes. Prannoy will face off against Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia in the quarterfinal. Ginting defeated India's Kiran George in straight games.

Priyanshu beat Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei 21-8, 13-21, 21-19. However, it was curtains for Kiran George, as he suffered a straight-game defeat to Ginting.

Priyanshu will take on Kidambi Srikanth in an all-Indian quarterfinal clash on Friday. Srikanth defeated Su Li Yang 21-10, 21-17 in 39 minutes.

However, Mithun Manjunath, who had upset Loh Kean Yew in the first round, battled hard against Lee Zii Jia before going down in a three-setter (13-21, 21-12, 19-21).

In women's singles, Sindhu defeated fellow Indian Aakarshi Kashyap 21-14, 21-10 to set up a quarterfinal clash with Beiwen Zhang of the USA.

In women's doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand's poor string of form continued to perish them. The world no. 17 Indian combo succumbed to a 10-21, 20-22 defeat to Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara of Japan. This was the third straight pre-quarterfinal exit for Treesa and Gayatri.