Australian Open Superseries: Good day for Indian shuttlers

It was a good day for Indian shuttlers as defending champion Saina Nehwal, Rio Olympics silver medallist P V Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Sai Praneeth advanced at the $750,000 Australia Open Superseries here on Thursday.

In women's singles category, Nehwal edged past Soniia Cheah of Malaysia 21-15, 20-22, 21-14 in a gruelling match which lasted around an hour. Fifth-seeded Sindhu played to her reputation and outplayed her Chinese opponent Chen Xiaoxin 21-13, 21-18 in 46 minutes' match.

In men's singles, Srikanth, who recently clinched Indonesia Open, and Praneeth continued their prime form, brushing aside South Korean top seed Son Wan Ho and Chinese Huang Yuxiang respectively to advance to the quarter-finals, where they take on each other.

Srikanth defeated Son Wan Ho 15-21, 21-13, 21-13 while Praneeth, who played a defensive game, defeated Yuxiang 21-15, 18-21, 21-13 in an hour long match.

In women's doubles, after winning the first game, the Indian pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy were outplayed in every department of the game by Japanese duo Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto 21-18, 18-21, 13-21, and bowed out of the meet.