Malaysian Open badminton: Sindhu, Prannoy in quarters; Kashyap loses in 2nd round

Kuala Lumpur, June 30 (IANS): Former World Champion P.V Sindhu and Thomas Cup-winner H.S Prannoy advanced to the quarterfinals as India had another mixed day at the Malaysian Open, the BWF World Tour Super 750 event, here on Thursday.

Sindhu and Prannoy won their second-round matches in contrasting styles while the country’s top men’s doubles pair of SatwiksairajRankireddy and ChiragShetty withdrew from the event due to an injury and P. Kashyap and women’s doubles player SrivedyaGurazada lost their respective matches.

After losing the first game, Sindhu made a stellar comeback to beat Thailand’s ChaiwanPhittayaporn 19-21, 21-9, 21-14. The seventh seed will next face second-seed Tai Tzu Ying in the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, in the men’s singles, Prannoy continued his excellent run by beating World No. 4, Chou Tien Chen, in straight games, 21-15, 21-7. He will next face Indonesia’s seventh seed, Jonatan Christie.

Kashyap lost a tight first game as he went down 19-21, 10-21 to KunlavutVitidsarn of Thailand in a second-round match.

The men’s doubles pair of Rankireddy and Shetty gave a walkover to the Malaysian duo SzeFeiGoh and NurIzzuddin of Malaysia.

Rankireddy pulled a muscle in his core and though he had recovered a bit on Thursday, it was not enough to play. With the Commonwealth Games less than a month away, the coaches and physios advised him to withdraw from the event.

Teaming up with IshikaJaiswal of the United States, SrivedyaGurazada lost to Febby Valencia DwijayantiGani and RibkaSugiarto of Indonesia 12-21, 8-21 on Thursday.