Star shuttler PV Sindhu moved into the second round of the Malaysia Open with a comfortable win over Sung Shuo-Yun of Chinese Taipei at the Stadium Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
Two-time Olympian Sindhu, 18th in the women’s singles BWF rankings, surged to the pre-quarterfinals after a 21-13, 22-20 over world No. 33 Sung Shuo-yun.
Despite being slow off the blocks, Sindhu led 11-9 at the interval and went on to wrap up the opening game in comfortable fashion.
The Hyderabad-based shuttler was made to dig deep in the second game as Sung Shuo-yun dragged it into a tiebreaker before Sindhu held her nerve to emerge on top.
This was Sindhu’s third win in as many matches against Sung Shuo-yun. She will face World No. 9 Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan in the next round.
Two-time world championships bronze medallists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also eased their way into the second round of the men’s doubles.
Squaring off against Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan, third seeds Satwik-Chirag made light work of the Chinese Taipei pair by beating them 21-13, 21-15 in just 35 minutes.
The win extended Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy’s dominant head-to-head record against Lee Jhe-huei and Yang Po-hsuan to 6-0.
Bad day for India’s doubles pairs
In the women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost 21-9, 21-23, 21-19 against Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Meilysa Trias Puspita Sari of Indonesia.
Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda also lost their first-round women’s doubles match 21-11, 21-9 against second seeds Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan of Malaysia.
Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi were also ousted in the opening round of the women’s doubles after a 21-12, 21-11 loss to fifth seeds Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto of Japan.
Meanwhile, India’s top mixed doubles pairing at world No. 17, Paris 2024 Olympian Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila endured an opening round exit after a 21-15, 18-21, 21-15 defeat against Presley Smith and Jennie Gai of the United States of America.
Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde also suffered a first-round exit after losing 21-10, 21-17 against second-seeded Jiang Zhenbang and Wei Yaxin of the People’s Republic of China.
Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh went down 21-11, 21-9 against Thailand’s Phuwanat Horbanluekit and Benyapa Aimsaard, bringing an end to India’s mixed doubles campaign at the BWF Super 1000 tournament.
