KUALA LUMPUR, May 23: PV Sindhu survived a scare before prevailing over Korea’s Sim Yu Jin but the highlight of the day was Ashmita Chaliha’s stunning win over third seed Beiwen Zhang of USA in the second round of the Malaysia Masters here on Thursday.
World No. 15 Sindhu, saw off Sim 21-13 12-21 21-14 in a 59-minute women’s singles second-round match to register her third win over the Korean world number 34.
Sindhu has not been able to hit top form ever since returning to action following a knee injury sustained in October last year.
Sindhu, seeded fifth, will next face top seed Han Yue in a revenge match. The Chinese had defeated her in their last meeting at the Asia badminton Championships in Ningbo last month. Later, the 24-year-old Ashmita, ranked 53rd, sizzled her way to a 21-19 16-21 21-12 win over world no. 10 Zhang to also storm into the quarterfinals of the Super 500 badminton tournament.
This is her second quarterfinal appearance in a super 500 event, having reached the last 8 in 2022 India Open.
The Guwahati shuttler will next square off against sixth seeded Chinese Zhang Yi Man, ranked 16th. In other results, Kiran George went down fighting 13-21 18-21 against fifth seed Lee Zii Jia in men’s singles.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, seeded 7th, also lost 18-21 22-20 14-21 to Korean pair of Sung Shuo Yun and Yu Chien Hui.
The mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy also suffered a loss, going down 9-21 15-21 to top-seeded Malaysian pair of Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, while Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker went down 17-21 11-21 to second-seeded Malaysians Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan in women’s doubles. (PTI)
