Praneeth, Sameer enter quarters of Australian Open

Indian shuttlers B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma lived up to their billing and registered straight game victories to progress to the quarter-finals of the men’s singles event at the Australian Open here on Thursday.

Second seed Praneeth beat Indonesia’s Panji Ahmad Maulana 21-12, 21-14, while fourth seeded Sameer edged past Takuma Ueda of Japan 21-16, 21-12 in their respective second round matches.

Praneeth will next play seventh seed Lee Cheuk Yiu of Indonesia, while Sameer will be up against China’s Lu Guangzu.

It turned out to be a good day for Indians in the men’s doubles too as third seed Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy defeated Korean combination of Hyuk Gyun Choi and Kyung Hoon Park 21-17, 21-17 to make it to the quarter-finals.

Seventh seeds Arjun MR and Ramchandran Shlok also booked their place in the last eight round but the pair was made to work hard for the win.

Arjun and Ramachandran were stretched by the Japanese pair of Hiroki Okamura and Masayuki Onodera before they got the better of their opponents 21-15, 25-23.

However, it will be curtains for one of the Indian pairs in the next round as they take on each other.

India’s campaign in women’s singles ended after China’s Han Yue thrashed JakkaVaishnavi Reddy in straight games 21-5, 21-5.

In the women’s doubles too it was end of the road for India after the pair of Jakkampudi Meghana and Poorvisha S Ram crashed out, losing 11-21, 13-21 to Japan’s Miki Kashihara and Miyuki Kato.

Mixed doubles duo of Shivam Sharma and Poorvish S Ram also bowed out after losing 6-21, 13-21 to fifth seeded Korean combination of Seung Jae Seo and Chae Yujung.