PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth enter second round of Malaysia Masters

Star Indian shuttler P V Sindhu had to dig deep to beat Denmark’s Line Christophersen in the women’s singles opening round, while H S Prannoy dished out a superlative display to stun world number six Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei in men’s singles of the Malaysia Masters on Wednesday.

Sindhu, seeded sixth, had to toil for one hour and two minutes to get the better of Christophersen 21-13, 17-21, 21-18 and maintain her superiority over the world no. 33 Dane, who the Indian had defeated four times earlier.

The two-time Olympic medallist Indian, ranked 13th in the world, will next play Japan’s Aya Ohori.

World no. 9 Prannoy, later, held his nerves after going a game down to upset Chou, ranked sixth, 16-21, 21-14, 21-13 in his opening match to enter the pre-quarterfinals.

Prannoy will next lock horns with Shi Feng Li of



China.

The other Indian man to enter the second round was Kidambi Srikanth, who defeated Toma Junior Popov of France 21-12, 21-16.

He will next be up against Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn, seeded eighth.

Lakshya Sen defeated seventh seed Kean Yew Loh of Singapore 21-10, 16-21, 21-9 in 55 minutes in his opening-round match. The Indian will next face Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong, China.

However, it was curtains for qualifier Ashmita Chaliha, Aakarshi Kashyap and Malvika Bansod in the women’s singles competition as they suffered straight-game defeats to crash out in the opening round.

While Ashmita lost 17-21, 7-21 against fourth seed Yue Han of China, Aakarshi was shown the door by top-seeded Japanese Akane Yamaguchi 17-21, 12-21.

Malvika was no match for second seed Zhi Yi Wang of China as she lost 11-21, 13-21.