world no 1 and east World Champion PV Sindhu, World No 24 Saina Nehwal, Thomas Cup winner HS Prannoy and 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Parupalli Kashyap will lead the Indian challenge at the BWF Malaysia Masters Super 500 Badminton Championships in Kuala Lumpur this week.
Two-time Malaysia Masters winner Sindhu, seeded seventh, will take on China’s He Bing Xiao in her first match to improve her 8-10 one-on-one record.
Saina, who won the trophy in 2017, started her campaign in the first round against Kim Ga Eun of South Korea.
In the absence of World Championships silver medalist Kidambi Srikanth, HS Prannoy, who reached the quarter-finals of the Malaysia Open last week, will take on France’s Bryce Leverdez in his opening match while Kashyap will face Indonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto.
Former World Championship bronze medalist B Sai Praneeth will open his campaign against Guatemala’s Kevin Corden. The other Indian men’s player is Sameer Verma, who will open his campaign against fourth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.
Read also | Tressa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand out of Malaysia Masters
Meanwhile, in first round action on Tuesday, India’s Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand suffered a 21-14, 21-14 loss to Tan Pearly and Tina Muralitharan of Malaysia in a women’s doubles match on Court 1. In another women’s doubles match, Pooja Dandu and Aarti Sara Sunil lost to eighth seeded Gabriella Stoeva and Stephanie Stoeva 21-17, 21-17 in 30 minutes.
Another Indian women’s doubles pair, K Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam, lost to fourth seeds Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota 21-7, 21-10. India’s Srivedya Gurzada and her American partner Ishika Jaiswal failed to put up a better show than the Chinese pair of Liu Xuan Xuan and Jia Yu-Ting 21-10 and 21-10 in 26 minutes.
In the women’s singles qualifying, Malavika Bansod lost to Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei 21-10, 21-17 in a 33-minute match. The Malaysian took control of the first game after 2–2 to win seven consecutive points. He kept the gap throughout the game and won 21-10. The second game was a bit close as Malavika leveled with scores of 2-2, 5-5, 12-12 and 17-11, before Goh Jin Wei won the final four points to win the match.
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