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India's Ayush Shetty, ranked 32nd in the men's singles badminton world rankings, stunned Japan's world No. 9 Kodai Naraoka, defeating him 21-17, 21-16 in a thrilling one-hour, eight-minute match at the Australian Open 2025 in Sydney, securing his spot in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
This was the third meeting between the two players in as many months on the BWF World Tour. The Indian badminton player had also defeated Naraoka, a world championships silver medallist, at the Hong Kong Open in September, but lost in the opening round of the Kumamoto Masters in Japan last week, according to Olympics.com. Ayush Shetty, whose US Open triumph this year remains India's only title of the season, will face fellow Indian Lakshya Sen in the quarterfinals on Friday. India's top men's doubles pair, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, cruised to a 21-18, 21-11 victory over the world No. 50 Chinese Taipei duo of Su Ching-heng and Wu Guan-Xun in just 37 minutes, advancing in the BWF Super 500 quarterfinal in Sydney. The Indian badminton players made a sluggish start at the Quaycentre in Sydney's Olympic Boulevard as they found themselves trailing the opening game 15-9 against Su Ching-heng and Wu Guan-Xun. Satwiksairaj-Chirag will face Indonesian fifth seeds Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Fajar Alfian in their top-eight clash on Friday. Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth takes on Japan's Shogo Ogawa, while Tharun Mannepalli faces Chinese Taipei's Lin Chun-Yi in the men's singles later on Thursday. The two Indians would meet in the next round if they win their opening matches. (ANI)
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