Kuala Lumpur, July 6 (UNI): Ace Indian shuttler P V Sindhu and Sai Praneeth had winning start at the Malaysia Masters badminton tournament as they sailed into the second round of the Super 500 event here on Wednesday.
Sindhu defeated He Bing Jiao of China 21-13, 17-21, 21-15 in 56 minutes while Praneeth ousted Tokyo Olympics semifinalist Kevin Cordon of Gautemala 21-8, 21-9 at Axiata Arena.
In the second round, Sindhu will face the winner of the match between world No. 47 Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia and bronze medallist Zhang Yi Man of China in the women’s singles. In the men’s singles, Praneeth will be up against the Chinese Li Shi Feng for a place in the quarters.
In other matches, Sameer Verma, however, lost to world No. 4 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 21-10, 12-21, 14-21 to make an early exit while Parupalli Kashyap got better of Indonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto in three setter 16-21, 21-16, 21-16.
Kashyap will face a tough challenge in the round-2 as he will face world no 6 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia. Later, Thomas Cup winner HS Prannoy continuing his fine form trounced Frenchman Brice Leverdez 21-14, 21-19 to advance to next round.
Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal failed go past first round as she lost 2-16, 17-21, 14-21 to Kim Ga Eun of South Korea in the women singles.
