Malaysia Masters: Sindhu, Saina cruise to 2nd round; Sai Praneeth, Srikanth bow out

PV Sindhu cruised past Evgeniya Kosetskaya 21-15,21-13

Kuala Lumpur, January 8: World champion P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal sailed into the second round with convincing wins, but World championships bronze-medallist B Sai Praneeth and the seasoned Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of the the Malaysia Masters on Wednesday (January 8).

Sindhu cruised past Russia's Evgeniya Kosetskaya 21-15,21-13 in a match that lasted for 35 minutes. World number six Sindhu will face Aya Ohori of Japan in the second round.

The London Olymics bronze medallist Saina beat Tan 21-15 21-17 in just 36 minutes of action. This was the first time the two were facing each other. Saina will next face eighth seed Korean An Se Young in the second round.

Meanwhile, H S Prannoy stunned world number 10 Kanta Tsuneyama. Prannoy, ranked 26th in the world, took 34 minutes to send Tsuneyama packing with a 21-9 21-17 win in the first round match.

Prannoy, however, runs into world number one and top seed Japanese Kento Momota, who has been in red-hot form, in the second round on Thursday (January 9).

Also progressing to the second round was Sameer Verma, who defeated Thailand's Kantaphon Wangcharoen 21-16, 21-15. He will next face Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia.

Earlier, Praneeth made a first round exit after going down tamely to Denmark's Rasmus Gemke 11-21 15-21. Srikanth lost his second seed encounter to Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen 17-21 5-21 in only 30 minutes.

Parupalli Kashyap also went down in straight games to Japanese top seed Kento Momota in the men's singles event. The Indian lost the match in 45 minutes.

On Tuesday (January 7), doubles Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and and Chirag Shetty, went down to world number 19 Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia. The India duo lost 15-21 21-18 15-21 against the lower-ranked local pair in a first round duel that lasted 52 minutes.

Mixed doubles pair Sikki Reddy and Pranav Jerry Chopra also crashed out on Wednesday (January 8). The duo lost top seeds Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong of China.

(With PTI inputs)