Malaysia Masters: Prannoy, Srikanth advance to second round, Sindhu bows out

Kuala Lumpur, May 21 (IANS) H S Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth entered the second round of the men’s singles at the Malaysia Masters badminton tournament on Wednesday. However, double Olympic medallist P. V. Sindhu suffered a first-round exit.

Prannoy battled past fifth seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in a 82-minute showdown, clinching a 19-21, 21-17, 21-16 victory. Not to be outdone, Srikanth stunned sixth seed Lu Guang Zu of China with a gritty 23-21, 13-21, 21-11 win to power into the next round.

Srikanth qualified for the main draw in the men’s singles section after beating Chinese Taipei shuttlers Kuo Kuan-lin and Huang Yu Kai in the qualifiers.

Other Indians in the men's singles, Sathish Karunakaran pulled off a stunning upset, toppling third seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei with a commanding 21-13, 21-14 victory in just 39 minutes. Meanwhile, rising star Ayush Shetty, bouncing back a game down, defeated Canada’s Brian Yang 20-22, 21-10, 21-8 and stormed into the second round.

Sindhu, however, fell 11-21, 21-14, 15-21 to Nguyen Thuy Linh of Vietnam in the women's singles first round.

Mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto registered a 21-18, 15-21, 21-14 win over Indah Cahya Sari Jamil and Adnan Maulana of Indonesia to prevail into the second round.

Unnati Hooda, Akarshi Kashyap and Priyanshu Rajawat will be in action later in the day.

Earlier, in the first round matches in the women’s doubles saw Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi lost 21-14, 21-18 against eighth seeds Lin Jhih-Yun and Hsu Yin-Hui of Chinese Taipei. Rashmi Ganesh and Sania Sikkandar also exited the women’s doubles in the first round after going down 21-10, 21-12 against Thailand’s Pichamon Phatcharaphisutsin and Nannapas Sukklad.

Prerana Alvekar and Mrunmayee Deshpande, on the other hand, progressed to the second round in the women’s doubles after beating compatriots Vaishnavi Khadkekar and Alisha Khan 21-19, 19-21, 21-13.

In the men’s doubles, Hariharan Amsakarunan and Ruban Kumar Rethinasabapathi suffered a first-round exit after losing 21-13, 21-18 to Chinese Taipei’s Chen Zhi-Ray and Lin Yu-Chieh.

Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy and Sai Pratheek K were ousted from the men’s doubles as well after falling to a 21-15, 23-21 defeat against fifth-seeded Man Wei Chong and Tee Kai Wun of Malaysia.

--IANS

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