India’s campaign at the Australian Open 2024 badminton tournament ended following HS Prannoy’s loss in the men’s singles quarter-finals in Sydney on Friday.

World No. 10 HS Prannoy fell to Japan’s Kodai Naraoka, sixth in the world badminton rankings, 21-19, 21-13 in 61 minutes at the Quaycentre.

Prannoy, who won bronze at the world championships last year, was pushed on the backfoot early in the opening game but went into the mid-game break trailing by just one point.

After the restart, Naraoka gained momentum with six straight points. Despite the Indian badminton player’s late charge to make it 19-all, the composed Japanese shuttler took the opening game.

In the second game, Prannoy and Naraoka engaged in longer rallies. Despite taking a 3-0 early lead, Prannoy looked patchy for the rest of the contest and struggled to match up to his Japanese opponent’s speed.

This was Prannoy’s sixth loss against Naraoka in seven meetings. Prannoy’s only win against the Japanese shuttler came at the Indonesia Open last year.

Earlier in the BWF Super 500 tournament, Prannoy beat world No. 53 Misha Zilberman of Israel in the round of 16 to make his first quarter-final since the India Open in January.

In other matches, Sameer Verma, who stunned former world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the round of 16, lost to world No. 17 Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei 21-12, 21-13.

In the women’s singles, eighth-seeded Aakarshi Kashyap went down to third-seeded Pai Yu-Po of Chinese Taipei 21-17, 21-12.

In the mixed doubles event, B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy lost to world No. 5 Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin of the People’s Republic of China 21-12, 21-14.

Indian badminton players are expected to be in action next at the US Open BWF Super 300 tournament starting on June 25.