Malaysia Open: Treesa-Gayatri duo advances; Saina bow out early

KUALA LUMPUR: Rising Indian women's doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Pullela Gopichand on Tuesday sailed into the Round-of-16 of the Malaysia Open Super 1000 badminton tournament while ace shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal suffered first-round exit on Tuesday.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist pair Treesa and Gayatri registered a straight game 21-19, 21-14 victory over Hong Kong's Yeung Nga Ting and Yeung Pui Lam of Hong Kong here at Axiata Arena.

The world no. 16 Indian pair will cross swords with the world no 14 Bulgarian sisters Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva for a spot in the quarterfinals.

Earlier, World championships silver medallist Srikanth, who is struggling with his form lately, failed to register a win in the year's first tournament and lost 19-21, 14-21 to world No. 17 Kenta Nishimoto of Japan. On the other hand, Nehwal went down fighting 12-21, 21-17, 12-21 to Han Yue of China.

After losing the opening game, Nehwal bounced back into the contest taking the second game 21-17 and managed to force the decider. However, the Indian shuttler could not maintain the momentum in the deciding game and ended up on the losing side against the world No. 11 Chinese.

In other action, Aakarshi Kashyap too suffered defeat in her first round at the hands of Wen Chi Hsu of Chinese Taipei 10-21, 8-21. Men's doubles pair Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala lost to South Korea's Kang Min Hyuk and Seo Seung Jae 10-21, 18-21 in the preliminary round.

The women's doubles pair of Treesa and Gayatri registered India's only win on the opening day of the Super 1000 tournament.

On Wednesday, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu will face Spain's Carolina Marin in her first match while Lakshya Sen will lock horns with his compatriot HS Prannoy for a place in the round of 16.

World championships bronze medallist men's double pair Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will be up against South Korea's Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho in their season's first tournament.