Badminton Asia C’ships: Ayush enters QF; Sindhu, Prannoy bow out

Ningbo: Ayush Shetty continued his fine form at the Badminton Asia Championships as he entered the quarterfinals after beating Chin Yu Jen of Taipie in straight games here on Thursday, while two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy concluded their campaigns with their respective second-round losses.

Ayush, the US Open 2025 champion, registered a comfortable 21-16, 21-12 win over the Taipie shuttler in a match that lasted for 41 minutes.

Ayush started off his campaign with a stunning win over world No. 7 and fifth seed Li Shi Feng of China, 21-13, 21-16, in the opening round. He will look to carry the momentum in the quarterfinal when he faces third seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia.

Meanwhile, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and former world championship medallist H. S. Prannoy bowed out after losing their respective second-round matches.

Prannoy, who came into the second round with a straight-games 24-22, 21-12 win over Nguyen Hai Dang, suffered a 12-21, 19-21 loss at the hands of world no. 17 Weng Hong Yang of Hong Kong.

In the women’s singles, Sindhu also suffered a straight-game defeat to the two-time Asian Champions and second seed Chinese Wang Zhi Yi. Sindhu had rallied to enter the second round after winning her women’s singles opener 15-21, 21-11, 21-19 against Wong Ling Ching of Malaysia.

In the mixed doubles, India also suffered a heartbreak as the pair of Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila fell to the fourth-seed duo of Toh Ee Wei and Chang Ten Jie 13-21, 14-21.

Later in the day, Unnati Hooda, who came from a game down to upset world No. 11 Supanida Katethong of Thailand in the opening round, will take on world No. 9 Japanese Tomoka Miyazaki.

In the women’s doubles, Priya Konjengbam and Shruti Mishra will lock horns with the fifth-seed Japanese duo of Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto for aplace in the quarterfinals.

IANS