Top seed P.V. Sindhu advanced to the second round of the Malaysia Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament after recording a win over Singapore’s Chena Jiayuan on a day that saw three Indians qualifying for the pre-quarterfinals of the men’s singles event in Kuala Lumpur.
Sindhu beat Jiayuan 21-13 19-21 21-13 in a match that lasted 47 minutes.
Sindhu will meet Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi in the quarterfinals tomorrow.
Making the pre-quarters of the men’s event were R.M.V. Gurusaidutt, Sameer Verma and K Srikanth.
Verma defeated Malaysia’s Wei Feng Chong 21-15 16-21 21-19 in 55 minutes while Gurusaidutt beat Giap Chin Goh, also from the host country, 21-8 21-9 in just 26 minutes. K. Srikanth got the better of Suppanyu Avihingsanon of Thailand 21-9 21-19 in 36 minutes.
P.C. Thulasi tasted defeat in the first round of the women’s section, losing to China’s Yao Xue 21-18 21-5. Also losing was Arundhati Pantawane, who was shown the door by Indonesia’s Maria Febe Kusumastuti 13-21 21-10 21-14.
Tanvi Lal too lost, to Japan’s Ito Kana 21-8 21-14.
H.S. Prannoy, who got a walkover in the first round, lost his second round match to Malaysia’s Zainuddin Iskandar Zulkarnain 15-21 21-14 21-15.
In mixed doubles, Sanjeeth S. and Jagadish Yadav lost to Indonesian duo of Hardi Hardianto and Agripinna Prima Rahmanto Putra 21-16 21-17.
