Malaysia Open: Mixed day for Indians

KUALA LUMPUR: HS Prannoy faced stiff resistance before prevailing over local hero Daren Liew here on Tuesday as the Indian shuttler progressed to the Malaysia Open men’s singles second round.

Prannoy, who had reached the Indonesia Open Super1000 semi-finals earlier this month, emerged a 21-14, 17-21, 21-18 winner in the first-round contest. The 29-year-old Prannoy, ranked 21st in the world, will face the fourth-seeded Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei next at the Super 750 tournament.

Prannoy’s victory brought some cheers to the India camp after B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma made early exits. While Praneeth went down 15-21, 21-19, 9-21 to World No.6 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia, comeback man Sameer lost 14-21, 21-13, 7-21 to World No.8 Jonatan Christie, also from Indonesia.

Meanwhile, in men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty recorded a 21-18, 2111 win over the Malaysian combination of Wei Chong Man and Wun Tee Kai. But, the women’s doubles duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy bowed out after losing 15-21, 11-21 to the sixth-seeded Japanese pair of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida.