Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu was made to toil hard by China's He Bing Jiao before emerging victorious in the opening round of the Malaysia Masters badminton tournament on Wednesday. (More Badminton News)
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu suffered mid-game scare before beating Chinese He Bing Jiao 21-13, 17-21, 21-15 in the first round of Malaysia Masters.
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu was made to toil hard by China's He Bing Jiao before emerging victorious in the opening round of the Malaysia Masters badminton tournament on Wednesday. (More Badminton News)
Meanwhile, it was curtains for 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist, Saina Nehwal, who lost to Kim Ga Eun of South Korea in her opening round tie. Saina lost 21-16, 17-21, 14-21.
The seventh seed Sindhu took close to an hour to knock out Bing Jiao 21-13, 17-21, 21-15 and move to the second round. By virtue of the win, the no.7 Sindhu exacted revenge for her first-round exit from the Indonesia Open last month when Bing Jiao had defeated her in straight games.
The Chinese still leads the head to head 10-9. In the men's singles, B Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap moved to the second round with contrasting wins. Praneeth hardly broke a sweat against Kevin Cordon, registering an easy 21-8, 21-9 win over Guatemalan in less than half an hour.
Kashyap came back from a one-game deficit to dispatch local favourite Tommy Sugiarto 16-21, 21-16 21-16. Praneeth will take on Li Shi Feng in the pre-quarterfinals. However, it was the end of the road for Sameer Verma, who went down fighting to fourth seed Chinese Taipei shuttler Chou Tien Chen 21-10, 12-21, 14-21.
Later in the day, HS Prannoy, and the women's doubles pair of N Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa will be in action.