Malaysia Masters: Prannoy, Karunakaran, Srikanth register wins; Sindhu exits
India's male shuttlers, led by the experienced duo of H S Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth, were off to a brilliant start but it was curtains for double Olympic-medallist PV Sindhu as she bowed out with a first-round loss at the Malaysia Masters badminton tournament here on Wednesday.
Prannoy and Srikanth were joined by Satish Karunakaran in the second round of the event.
Taking the court first, Prannoy stunned fifth seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan 19-21 21-17 21-16 in a hard-fought contest that lasted one hour and 22 minutes. The Indian will play Yushi Tanaka of Japan in the second round.
Karunakaran also registered an upset by stunning third seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 21-13 21-14 in just 39 minutes. He will next face Christo Popov of France.
Ayush Shetty also progressed after getting past Brian Yang of Canada 20-22 21-10 21-8.
Later, former world no.1 Srikanth stunned a higher-ranked opponent in sixth seed Lu Guang Zu of China 23-21 13-21 21-11 in a 57-minute showdown to progress.
But Sindhu's poor form continued as she failed to get past the opening hurdle of the Super 500 tournament, losing 11-21 21-14 15-21 against Nguyen Thuy Linh of Vietnam.
The Indian mixed doubles duo of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto also moved into the second round with a 21-18 15-21 21-14 win over the Indonesian pair of Adnan Maulana and Indah Cahya Sari Jamil, but all other Indian pairs suffered defeats.
Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh were no match for top seeds Jiang Zheng Bang and Wei Yaxin, as they lost 10-21 12-21 in the opening round of the mixed doubles event.
Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde too lost 10-21 14-21 to fourth seeds Guo Xin Wa and Chen Fang Hui of China.
The pairing of Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath was shown the door by Indonesia's Verrell Yustin Mulia and Lisa Ayu Kusumawati 15-21 16-21.
