Sydney: Young player Ayush Shetty and former bronze medallist Lakshya Sen progressed in the Australian Open in different styles, creating an all-Indian quarterfinal matchup, while veterans HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth faced early eliminations on Thursday. The top-seeded Indian men’s doubles team of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also reached the last eight with a straightforward 21-18, 21-11 win against Chinese-Taipei’s Su Ching Heng and Wu Guan Xun in 37 minutes. The Satwik-Chirag duo will face the fifth-seeded Indonesian team of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri in the quarterfinals. Shetty, who won the Yonex US Open Super 300 tournament earlier this year, defeated fourth-seeded Kodai Naraoka with scores of 21-17, 21-16 in a match lasting 68 minutes.
This victory marks the 20-year-old’s second win over the world No.9 Japanese player this year, setting up a match against the seventh-seeded Sen, who triumphed over Chinese-Taipei’s Chi Yu Jen with scores of 21-17, 13-21, 21-13 in a contest lasting 63 minutes.