Australian Open 2023: Priyanshu Rajawat breezes past Srikanth, Prannoy stuns World No. 2, Sindhu out

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Published at :August 4, 2023 at 4:16 PM

Modified at :January 13, 2024 at 4:57 PM

(Courtesy : BAI Media/News9live)

HS Prannoy and Priyanshu Rajawat will clash next in an all-Indian semi-final meeting.

India’s top ranked shuttler HS Prannoy and young Priyanshu Rajawat won their respective quarter-finals matches to set-up an all-Indian men’s singles semi-final clash in Australian Open 2023. Priyanshu, 21, breezed past compatriot and former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth in just 30 minutes and straight games to reach his second semi-final in the BWF World Tour this season.

The only remaining other Indian, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, bowed out after a straight game defeat to USA’s Beiwen Zhang.

Sindhu, seeded fifth at the Australian Open 2023, started India’s proceedings on the day but did not have a good start herself, allowing Zhang to dominate from the first points. Her court coverage was quite poor and her opponent from USA made use of this and always kept Sindhu running to and fro. This also did not allow Sindhu to settle down and it resulted in a quite comfortable 21-12 opening game win for the fourth seed Zhang.

The Indian came back better prepared in the second game and this time was quick to cover ground. The scorecard remained even for most parts of the second game, but Zhang turned on the accelerator from 16-all and took away the match to win in straight games 21-12, 21-17.

Zhang, WR-12, has been in good form this year — reaching the semi-finals five times in the BWF World Tour. She also last week defeated reigning Olympic champion Chen Yufei in the Japan Open.

Later in the day, HS Prannoy came back from behind to defeat WR-2 and top seed Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in three games (16-21, 21-17, 21-14). Prannoy looked a completely different player post the opening game loss. In the whole match, Ginting gifted the Indian close to ten points through unforced errors which came back to haunt the Indonesian quite badly in the end.

Prannoy, 31, took the lead in the mid-game interval (11-9) of the second game and from thereon never trailed until the finish. However, Ginting had few good spells in between. Prannoy, in the 2nd game, had seven game points opportunities. But the Indonesian saved four of those to put some pressure on Prannoy.

However, with gap between them too big, Prannoy had little trouble in winning the game. The last game didn’t last much longer with Prannoy continuing his prime form.

Orleans Masters winner Priyanshu Rajawat had an easy victory over countrymate Kidambi Srikanth finishing the encounter within 30 minutes. Next up, HS Prannoy is set to take on Priyanshu Rajawat in an All-India clash for a place in the final of Australia Open.

Indian Sports Live Coverage on Khel Now

India’s performance on Day 4 of Australian Open 2023

HS Prannoy beat Anthony Sinisuka Ginting (16-21, 21-17, 21-14)

Kidambi Srikanth lost to Priyanshu Rajawat (13-21, 8-21)

Women’s Singles Quarter-Finals

PV Sindhu lost to Beiwen Zhang (12-21, 17-21)

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M Sudharshan

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