Malaysia Masters: Sindhu, Prannoy advance; Saina knocked out

KUALA LUMPUR: PV Sindhu had to toil before emerging victorious in her Malaysia Masters opener while Saina Nehwal made a first-round exit here on Wednesday.

The seventh-seeded Sindhu knocked out China’s He Bing Jiao 21-13, 17-21, 21-15 to progress to the women’s singles second round. In another contest, Saina squandered a one-game advantage to go down 21-16, 17-21, 14-21 to Kim Ga Eun of South Korea.

In men’s singles, HS Prannoy advanced after he clinched a comfortable 21-19, 21-14 victory over Frenchman Brice Leverdez. B Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap also made it to the second round, but with contrasting wins. While Praneeth hardly broke a sweat during his 21-8, 21-9 triumph over Guatemala’s Kevin Cordon, Kashyap came back from a game down to defeat local favourite Tommy Sugiarto 16-21, 21-16, 21-16.

But, Sameer Verma could not join the trio as he suffered a 21-10, 12-21, 14-21 defeat at the hands of Chinese Taipei shuttler Chou Tien Chen. Meanwhile, the women’s doubles combination of N Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 19-21, 21-18, 16-21 to the Indonesian duo of Fabriana Kusuma and Amalia Pratiwi in their opening match.