Australian Open: Praneeth, Sameer, Manu-Sumeeth, Shlok-Arjun in quarters

Sydney, May 10 B. Sai Praneeth, and Sameer Verma joined the Indian pairs of Manu Attri-B. Sumeeth Reddy and Ramachandran Shlok-Arjun M.R. to enter the quarter-finals of the Australian Open badminton tournament after registering victories in their respective games here on Thursday. The third-seeded pair of Manu and Sumeeth defeated the South Korean duo of Hyuk Gyun Choi and Kyung Hoon Park 21-17, 21-17 in the 35-minute clash. On the other hand, seventh-seeded Arjun MR and Ramachandran Shlok, the other Indian pair, also booked their place in the last eight round after beating Japan's Hiroki Okamura and Masayuki Onodera 21-15, 25-23 in a hard-fought battle. Earlier on Thursday, B. Sai Praneeth defeated Maulana Panji Ahmad of Indonesia in straight games in a one-sided men's singles clash. The second-seeded Indian needed just 32 minutes to chalk up a comfortable 21-12, 21-14 victory against his unseeded opponent from Indonesia. This was the second win on the trot for Praneeth in this tournament. In another men's singles match of the day, fourth-seeded Sameer defeated Takuma Ueda of Japan 21-16, 21-12 in 37 minutes. However, it was the end of the road for India in the women's doubles affair as Jakkampudi Meghana and Poorvisha S Ram bowed out, suffering an 11-21, 13-21 defeat against Miki Kashihara and Miyuki Kato of Japan. The mixed doubles pair comprising Shivam Sharma and Poorvish S. Ram also crashed out after losing 6-21, 13-21 to the fifth-seeded South Korean combination of Seung Jae Seo and Chae Yujung. India's campaign in the women's singles too came to an end as Jakka Vaishnavi Reddy succumbed to China's Han Yue in straight games 21-5, 21-5.