Malaysia Masters Badminton: PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal Through To 2nd Round; Sai Praneeth, Kidambi Srikanth Out

Sai Praneeth's 11-21 15-21 loss meant another disappointment for India in the Super 500 tournament following Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty's first-round defeat in the men's doubles event on Tuesday.

PTI

Updated on: 8 January 2020 5:26 pm

Ace Indian women shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal registered convincing wins to sail into the second round but World championships bronze-medallist B Sai Praneeth and the seasoned Kidambi Srikanth bowed out of the Malaysia Masters badminton tournament on Wednesday.

(Badminton News)

Reigning world champion Sindhu, seeded sixth, took just 35 minutes to beat Evgeniya Kosetskaya of Russia 21-15 21-13 in the first round.

The other Indian in the fray, London Olympics bronze medallist Saina needed just 36 minutes to get the better of Belgium's Lianne Tan.

The unseeded Saina brushed aside Tan 21-15 21-17 in just 36 minutes of action. This was the first time the two were facing each other.

Both Sindhu and Saina have struggled recently making a series of early exits with the former failing to defend the World Tour Finals crown last month.

Earlier, Praneeth made a first round exit after going down tamely to Denmark's Rasmus Gemke 11-21 15-21 while Srikanth lost his second round encounter to Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen 17-21 5-21 in only 30 minutes.