Malaysia Masters: HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen begin with bang

Kuala Lumpur, May 24

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Star Indian shuttler PV Sindhu had to dig deep to beat Denmark’s Line Christophersen in the opening round of the women’s singles, while HS Prannoy dished out a superlative display to stun world No. 6 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei and Lakshya Sen stunned world No. 4 Loh Kean Yew in the men’s section of the Malaysia Masters here today.

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, whom she had defeated four times earlier in their meetings. However, it was curtains for qualifier Ashmita Chaliha, Aakarshi Kashyap and Malvika Bansod as they suffered straight-game defeats to crash out in the opening round of the women’s singles. While Chaliha lost 17-21 7-21 to fourth seed Yue Han of China, Kashyap was shown the door by top seed Japanese Akane Yamaguchi in a 17-21 12-21 loss. Bansod was no match for second seed Zhi Yi Wang of China as she lost 11-21 13-21.

In the men’s singles, world No. 9 Prannoy bounced back from a game down to upset Chen 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. World No. 22 Sen beat Yew 21-10 16-21 21-9. In another men’s singles match, Kidambi Srikanth powered to a 21-12 21-16 win over Toma Junior Popov of France.