It was a mixed opening day for India at the season-opening Malaysia Open, with PV Sindhu and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty registering comfortable wins.
While the women’s doubles pairs exited in the first round in Bukit Jalil on Wednesday. Returning to competitive badminton after a four-month injury lay-off, Sindhu produced a composed performance to defeat Chinese Taipei’s Sung Shuo Yun 21-13, 22-20 in a 51-minute women’s singles first-round match.
Sindhu started slowly, trailing 1-6 in the opening game as she took time to adjust to match conditions. Once settled, however, the former world champion asserted control with her attacking game, reeling off points to take an 11-9 lead at the mid-game interval before closing out the first game comfortably.
The Indian shuttler continued to dictate play in the second game and looked set for a routine win when she led 14-9. Sung mounted a late fightback, drawing level at 20-20, but Sindhu leaned on her experience to win the final two points and seal the match in straight games.
Sindhu will face a tougher challenge in the second round against eighth seed Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan.
In men’s doubles, third seeds Satwik and Chirag made an assured start to their campaign, beating Chinese Taipei’s Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan 21-13, 21-15.
India’s women’s doubles campaign, however, ended in disappointment. Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly went down in a closely fought three-game encounter against Indonesia’s Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Meilysa Trias Puspitasari. After losing the opening game 9-21, the Indian pair bounced back to take the second 23-21 but narrowly lost the decider 19-21 in a match lasting over an hour.
Rutuparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda also bowed out, losing 9-21, 11-21 to second seeds Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan of Malaysia.
In mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto were beaten 15-21, 21-18, 15-21 by the American pair of Presley Smith and Jennie Gai.
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