Misha ztlberman

World Champion Loh Kean Yew: Star Indian shuttlers H.S Prannoy, Sameer Verma, and Aakarshi Kashyap advanced into the quarterfinals of the singles competition while eighth seed B. Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy also reached the last-eight stage in the mixed doubles at the Australian Open badminton championships here on Thursday.

The fifth-seeded Prannoy defeated world No. 53 Misha Ztlberman of Israel 21-17, 21-15 in 46 minutes on Court 2 at Quaycentre in the BWF World Tour Super 500 series tournament.

With this win, the 31-year-old Prannoy, India’s top-ranked men’s singles player in this event, has set up a quarterfinal clash with world No. 6 Kodai Naraoka of Japan. This is the first time that Prannoy has progressed beyond the second round since making the semifinals at the India Open in January.