Sen vs Shetty in last-8, Satwik-Chirag also win

Sydney: Young shuttler Ayush Shetty and former world championships bronze medallist Lakshya Sen advanced in the Australian Open in contrasting fashion to set up an all-Indian quarterfinal clash, while senior pros HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth made early exits here on Thursday.

The top-seeded Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty too made it to the last-eight with an easy 21-18, 21-11 victory against Chinese-Taipei’s Su Ching Heng and Wu Guan Xun in 37 minutes.

The Satwik-Chirag pair will take on the fifth-seeded Indonesian pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri in the quarterfinals.

Shetty, winner of the Yonex US Open Super 300 tournament earlier this year, defeated fourth-seeded Kodai Naraoka 21-17, 21-16 in a contest lasting 68 minutes.

This was the 20-year-old’s second win over the world No.9 Japanese this year as he set up a showdown with the seventh-seeded Sen, who overcame Chinese-Taipei’s Chi Yu Jen 21-17, 13-21, 21-13 in a contest that lasted 63 minutes. Sen took sweet revenge for his round-of-32 loss to Chi Yu Jen, who had defeated the Indian at the Malaysia Open earlier this year.

However, Prannoy, who has not advanced beyond the pre-quarterfinals this year, could not keep up with eighth seed and former junior world champion Indonesian Farhan Alwi, losing 19-21, 10-21 in 42 minutes in the $ 475,000 Super 500 event.

On Wednesday, the 33-year-old Prannoy, an Asian Games bronze-medallist and a 2023 World Championships bronze winner, had been stretched by world No. 85 Yohanes Saut Marcellyno before the Indian won 6-21, 21-12, 21-17 against the lower-ranked player.

Veteran Srikanth, whose best this year has been a second-place finish at the Malaysia Masters, lost to Shogo Ogawa of Japan 20-22, 16-21

in 43 minutes.