PV Sindhu, Prannoy in Rd 2, Saina Nehwal out

Kuala Lumpur, July 6

Two-time Olympics medallist PV Sindhu had to toil before emerging victorious in the opening round of the Malaysia Masters, while compatriot Saina Nehwal made a second consecutive first-round exit here today.

The seventh-seeded Sindhu took almost an hour to knock out China’s He Bingjiao 21-13 17-21 21-15 and move into the second round.

With this win, world No. 7 Sindhu exacted revenge of her first-round exit from the Indonesia Open Super 1000 last month, where Bingjiao had defeated her in the straight games. The Chinese though still leads the head-to-head 10-9. Nehwal, on the other hand, squandered a one-game lead to go down 21-16 17-21 14-21 to Kim Ga Eun of South Korea. The world No. 24 had also exited in the first round from the Malaysia Open Super 750 tournament last week.

In the men’s singles, HS Prannoy claimed a comfortable 21-19 21-14 victory over Frenchman Brice Leverdez. B Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap also advanced. While Praneeth beat Kevin Cordon 21-8 21-9, Kashyap rebounded to beat Tommy Sugiarto 16-21 21-16 21-16. However, Sameer Verma lost 21-10 12-21 14-21 to Chou Tien Chen.