Malaysia Masters: PV Sindhu, Sai Praneeth, Parupalli Kashyap enter second round; Saina Nehwal bows out

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 here on Wednesday. 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 world number seven Sindhu exacted revenge for her first-round exit from the Indonesia Open Super 1000 last month when Bing Jiao had defeated her in straight games. The Chinese still lead the head-to-head 10-9.

Sindhu dominated the early exchanges to build a massive 11-3 lead heading into the first break. The Indian player then controlled the game to take a 1-0 lead.

After the change of ends, Jiao led the two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu 11-7 at the break. The Indian ace, with a four-point streak, levelled the game at 11-all but He Bing Jiao regrouped quickly and stretched the match into the decider.

The third game saw both shuttlers engage in long rallies. After the scores were tied at 3-all, World No. 7 Sindhu struck 10 points on the trot and weathered a late comeback to progress into the second round of the BWF Super 500 badminton tournament.

The Indian shuttler will face the winner of the match between world No. 47 Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia and world bronze medallist Zhang Yi Man of China.

Meanwhile, London Olympics bronze medallist Saina went down 21-16, 17-21, 14-21 to Kim Ga Eun of South Korea. The 32-year-old had also made a first-round exit from the Malaysia Open Super 750 tournament last week.

In the men's singles, B Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap moved to the second round with contrasting wins.

While Praneeth broke 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 favorite 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.