Sydney: Indian shuttlers HS Prannoy and Sameer Verma reached the Australian Open men's singles quarterfinals with contrasting wins over their respective rivals here on Thursday.

While fifth seed Prannoy, a former world No. 1, took just 46 minutes to defeat Israel's Misha Zilberman 21-17 21-15 in the round of 16, Verma had to toil for an hour and two minutes to pull off an upset at the eighth spot. Had to do. Singapore's seeded Loh Kean Yew 21-14 14-21 21-19.

Prannoy will next face second seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan, while Verma will take on Chun-Yi Lin of Chinese Taipei on Friday.

However, Kiran George was left exposed in the men's singles event as he lost 20-22, 6-21 against seventh seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan.Among Indian women shuttlers, eighth seed Akarshi Kashyap defeated Australia's Kai Qi Bernice Teoh 21-16, 21-13 to enter the quarter-finals, where she will face third seed Yu Po Pai of Chinese Taipei.

But the tournament ended for Anupama Upadhyay and Malvika Bansod in the second round of women's singles.

Anupama lost 11-21, 18-21 against sixth-seeded Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia, while Malvika lost 17-21, 21-23 to eighth-seeded Indonesian Aster Nurumi Tri Wardoyo. Gave.

This was also the end of the Panda sisters Rutaparna and Swetaparna's career in women's doubles. The seventh seeded Indian pair lost 5-21, 9-21 to Malaysian pair of Pei Jing Lai and Chiw Hsien Lim.However, the mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy continued to make progress as the eighth seeded Indian pair defeated Kai Chen Teoh and Kai Qi Bernice Teoh of Australia 21-11, 21-11 to enter the last-eight. Did.

But tough competition awaits the mixed doubles pair in the quarterfinals. They will face top seeds Zhen Bang Jiang and Ya Xin Wei of China.