Prannoy knocked out, India's challenge ends in Sydney

India's top ranked singles player HS Prannoy went down to higher-ranked Kodai Naraoka of Japan 19-21, 13-21 as none among the country's shuttlers failed to progress beyond the quarter-finals of the Australian Open Super 500 event in Sydney on Friday.

The World No. 10 Prannoy was the latest to be eliminated on a day when Sameer Verma, mixed doubles pair of Sikki Reddy and B Sumeeth Reddy along with women singles player Aakarshi Kashyap drew blanks.

Prannoy rallied from being 10-16 down to level at 18-all before taking a one-point lead. But Naraoka held his nerves to seal the first game.

Naraoka was far superior in the second game as upped the ante at 5-5 without giving Prannoy any scope of a comeback to seal the match in little more than an hour.

Fresh from his upset victory over former world No. 1 Loh Kean Yew, Verma was no match for his world No. 17 opponent Chinese Taipei opponent Lin Chun-Yi who cruised to a 21-12, 21-13 win in 38 minutes.

In the mixed doubles, eighth seeded husband-wife duo of Summeth and Sikki also faced a tough opposition in top seeded pair of Jian Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin, who took just about 30 minutes to secure an easy 21-12, 21-14 victory.

Eighth seed Aakarshi went down to Chinese Taipei's Yu Po Pai 21-17, 21-12 in a 42-minute women's singles contest.