MALAYSIA OPEN
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8: Star shuttler PV Sindhu produced an impressive performance, defeating Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki to book her spot in the women’s singles quarterfinals but India’s challenge ended in the men’s singles at the Malaysia Open Super 1000 badminton tournament here on Thursday.
Former world champion Sindhu, returning after a long injury lay-off, defeated the eighth-seeded Miyazaki 21-8, 21-13 in 33 minutes.
Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, will take on third-seeded Japanese Akane Yamaguchi, a three-time world champion, who defeated China’s Gao Fang Jie 21-11 4-21 21-17 in another match.
Top men’s pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who won a second bronze at world championships last year, also sailed into the quarterfinals with a 21-18 21-12 win over Malaysia’s World No. 17 Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap in 39 minutes.
The former World No. 1 Indians, who reached the finals of Hong Kong Open and China Masters in 2025, thus extended their head-to-head record against the Malaysian pair to 4-0.The Asian Games champions will next face the winners of the clash between Chinese Taipei’s Chen Zhi Ray/Lin Yu Chieh and sixth seeds Fajar Alfian/Fikri Muhammad of Indonesia.However, it was curtains for ace Indian men’s player Lakshya Sen and young Ayush Shetty who both lost at the pre-quarterfinal stage.Sen, who had broken the three-year jinx of first-round exits in the tournament when he defeated Singapore’s Jia Heng Jason Teh on Wednesday, succumbed in the pre-quarterfinals to Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu 22-22 15-21 in 53 minutes.Shetty went down fighting against top seed Shi Yu Qi of China 18-21, 21-18, 12-12 in a 70-minute slugfest. (PTI)
