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, in Sydney, 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.
Shetty, winner of the Yonex US Open Super 300 tournament earlier this year, defeated fourth-seeded Naraoka 21-17, 21-16 in a contest lasting 68 minutes. This was his second win over the World No 9 Japanese this year to set up a quarter-final showdown with compatriot Lakshya Sen, who overcame Chinese-Taipei's Chi Yu Jen 21-17, 13-21, 21-13 in a contest that lasted 63 minutes..
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 US$ 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.
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.
Shetty, who had beaten Naraoka in the Hong Kong Open this year, was given a tough fight by the higher-ranked Japanese as the lead kept changing hands before the Indian, who was leading 18-17, took the remaining three points to win the opening game.
The second game was clearly one-sided despite the Japanese keeping pace with Shetty till 14-all before the Indian raised his game a few notches to win five straight points to lead 19-14 and finally close out the match.
Satwiksairaj-Chirag pair will take on the fifth-seeded Indonesian pair of Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri in the quarters.
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.
Sen led from start to finish in the opening game, leading 14-4 at one point before the Chinese-Taipei opponent rallied from 10-20 to 17-20, notching up seven straight points.
The second game saw the resurgent Yu Jen take the match to the decider where Sen again notched up seven consecutive points from 7-7 to make it a one-sided final game.
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