China Masters 2024: PV Sindhu, Malvika Bansod Into Second Round; Anupama Upadhyaya Stuns Beiwen Zhang

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India's top shuttler PV Sindhu advanced to the second round of the China Masters 2024 following a straight games win over Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungphan on Wednesday (November 20) at the Shenzhen Bay Gymnasium in Shenzhen, China.

The two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu saw off the Thai shuttler by a scoreline of 21-17, 21-19 in the women's singles opening round match that lasted 50 minutes on court 1.

The 29-year-old former world champion Sindhu will next face Singapore's Yeo Jia Min in the second round on Thursday (November 21). Sindhu will be joined in the women's singles second round by in-form Malvika Bansod, who came from a game down to see off Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark in the closely foght three-game contest.

Bansod, who recently finished runners up in the Hylo Open, defeated the Dane by a scoreline of 20-22, 23-21, 21-16 in the women's singles first round match that lasted for an hour and 13 minutes. Bansod will next face eighth seed Supanida Katethong of Thailand.

Later, Lakshya Sen kept the men's singles challenge alive by seeing off seventh seed Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in the opening round match. Sen exacted reveng for the Paris Olympic bronze medal loss, defeating the Malaysian by a scoreline of 21-14, 13-21, 21-13 in 57 minutes.

The 23-year-old Indian will next face the winner of the first round match between Denmark's Rasmus Gemke and Japan's Kenta Nishimoto in the last 16 round on Thursday, when more Indians will be in action.

Also joining the Sindhu and Bansod in the women's singles last 16 will be youngster Anupama Upadhyaya, who stunned world No. 15 American Beiwen Zhang on Tuesday (November 19) to progress to the next stage at the China Masters Super 750 tournament.

The 19-year-old from Almora, ranked No. 50, showed great composure to outsmart Zhang 21-17 8-21 22-20 in a 48-minute contest. It will be her first second-round appearance in a BWF Super 750 event.

Anupama will next face Japan's Natsuki Nidaira in the second round. There was more good news as B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy advanced to the mixed doubles second round.

The husband-wife duo beat the American pair of Presley Smith and Jennie Gai 23-21 17-21 21-17. The duo will next take on the top-seeded Chinese pair of Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping.

However, it was a disappointing end for Priyanshu Rajawat and Aakarshi Kashyap on Tuesday (November 19) as the singles players crashed out in the opening round of their respective categories.

World No. 34 Rajawat went down 24-22 13-21 18-21 to world No. 32 Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo in the men's singles. In women's singles, Kashyap was no match for world No. 14 Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan, losing 10-21 18-21.

Later on Wednesday (November 20), the doubles pairs Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand will open their China Masters 2024 campaigns in the men's and women's doubles categories respectively.