Badminton, Australian Open Super 500: HS Prannoy, Sameer Verma exit as Indian campaign ends

The Indian campaign at the 2024 Australian Open Super 500 came to an end on Friday as all the shuttlers from the country bowed out in the quarter-finals stage.

The 2024 Paris Olympics bound HS Prannoy was the final Indian to exit the competition as he went down to Kodai Naraoka of Japan 19-21, 13-21 in a contest which lasted just over an hour.

Prannoy, ranked 10th in the world, trailed 5-8 in the opening game before reducing the deficit to just a point at 10-11. The second seeded Japanese, however, took control post the interval as he won five points in a row to lead 16-10.

Though Prannoy tried to fight back from that position, it was too late in the first game. The Indian continued to struggle in the second game as well as Naraoka wrapped up the match in 61 minutes.

Earlier in the day, Sameer Verma went down 12-21, 13-21 to world No 17 Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei in just 38 minutes.

Verma, who had registered an upset victory over Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the Round of 16, was of no match to his higher ranked opponent in the quarter-finals as he went out in straight games.

Meanwhile, the mixed doubles pair of Sumeeth Reddy...

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