Malaysia Masters: Sindhu, Prannoy advance

KUALA LUMPUR: PV Sindhu had to dig deep to defeat Denmark’s Line Christophersen in the women’s singles opening round while HS Prannoy dished out a superlative performance to stun World No.6 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in men’s singles of the Malaysia Masters here on Wednesday.

Sindhu, seeded sixth, had to toil to get the better of Christophersen 21-13, 17-21, 21-18 and maintain her winning streak against the World No.33, who the Indian had defeated four times earlier.

It was curtains for qualifier Ashmita Chaliha, Aakarshi Kashyap and Malvika Bansod as they suffered straight-game defeats to crash out in the first round. While Ashmita lost 17-21, 7-21 against fourth seed Yue Han of China, Aakarshi was shown the door by top-seeded Japanese Akane Yamaguchi with a 17-21, 12-21 defeat. Malvika was no match for second seed Zhi Yi Wang from China, losing by a 11-21, 13-21 scoreline.

In men’s singles, World No.9 Prannoy held his nerve after going a game down to upset Chou 16-21, 21-14, 21-13. Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the pre-quarterfinals after a 21-12, 21-16 victory over Junior Popov of France.

Lakshya Sen also advanced to the next round, thanks to a 21-10, 16-21, 21-9 win over Loh Kean Yew from host Malaysia.